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. 2020 Jan;7(1):015012.
doi: 10.1117/1.NPh.7.1.015012. Epub 2020 Mar 11.

Disrupted functional brain connectivity networks in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: evidence from resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Mengjing Wang  1 , Zhishan Hu  1 , Lu Liu  2   3   4 , Haimei Li  2   3   4 , Qiujin Qian  2   3   4 , Haijing Niu  1   5
Affiliations

Disrupted functional brain connectivity networks in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: evidence from resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Mengjing Wang et al. Neurophotonics. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Significance: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common psychological disease in childhood. Currently, widely used neuroimaging techniques require complete body confinement and motionlessness and thus are extremely hard for brain scanning of ADHD children. Aim: We present resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as an imaging technique to record spontaneous brain activity in children with ADHD. Approach: The brain functional connectivity was calculated, and the graph theoretical analysis was further applied to investigate alterations in the global and regional properties of the brain network in the patients. In addition, the relationship between brain network features and core symptoms was examined. Results: ADHD patients exhibited significant decreases in both functional connectivity and global network efficiency. Meanwhile, the nodal efficiency in children with ADHD was also found to be altered, e.g., increase in the visual and dorsal attention networks and decrease in somatomotor and default mode networks, compared to the healthy controls. More importantly, the disrupted functional connectivity and nodal efficiency significantly correlated with dimensional ADHD scores. Conclusions: We clearly demonstrate the feasibility and potential of fNIRS-based connectome technique in ADHD or other neurological diseases in the future.

Keywords: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; connectome; functional connectivity; functional near-infrared spectroscopy; resting-state.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic diagram of experimental data acquisition. (a) Photo obtained from a participant during the data collection. (b) Optodes and channels. The red circles represent the sources and the blue circles represent the detectors. Meanwhile, the green lines linking the sources and detectors represent the formed measurement channels. (c) The arrangement of the whole-head 80 measurement channels on a functional network brain template.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Spatial patterns of the functional connectivity in ADHD and HC groups. (a) Functional connectivity maps for these two groups. (b) Histograms of the functional connectivity distribution. The functional connectivity displayed approximately normal configuration in both ADHD and HC groups. (c) The stacked bar chart of functional connectivity across different thresholds.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Significantly decreased functional connectivity in children with ADHD. The decreased functional connectivity was categorized into three groups: homotopic, intrahemispheric, and heterotopic connections. The dots represent measurement channels, and the colors label the cortical location of these channels.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Group differences in (a) global, (b) local, and (c) nodal efficiencies. In (c), the red circles with white and black points indicate that the nodal efficiency significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in children with ADHD as compared to HC group.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The relationship between functional connectivity and core symptoms in the ADHD group. (a) The connections showed significant correlation with core symptoms. (b) The scatter plotted between core symptoms and functional connectivity. (c) The scatter plotted between core symptoms and mean functional connectivity between right frontoparietal and visual networks.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The relationship between nodal efficiency in the right somatomotor network and core symptoms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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