Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;63(9):1057-1067.
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13563. Epub 2022 Feb 20.

Altered theta-beta ratio in infancy associates with family history of ADHD and later ADHD-relevant temperamental traits

Jannath Begum-Ali  1 , Amy Goodwin  2 , Luke Mason  1 , Greg Pasco  3 , Tony Charman  3 , Mark H Johnson  1   4 , Emily J H Jones  1 ; STAARS Team
Affiliations

Altered theta-beta ratio in infancy associates with family history of ADHD and later ADHD-relevant temperamental traits

Jannath Begum-Ali et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Uncovering the neural mechanisms that underlie symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires studying brain development prior to the emergence of behavioural difficulties. One new approach to this is prospective studies of infants with an elevated likelihood of developing ADHD.

Methods: We used a prospective design to examine an oscillatory electroencephalography profile that has been widely studied in both children and adults with ADHD - the balance between lower and higher frequencies operationalised as the theta-beta ratio (TBR). In the present study, we examined TBR in 136 10-month-old infants (72 male and 64 female) with/without an elevated likelihood of developing ADHD and/or a comparison disorder (Autism Spectrum Disorder; ASD).

Results: Infants with a first-degree relative with ADHD demonstrated lower TBR than infants without a first-degree relative with ADHD. Further, lower TBR at 10 months was positively associated with temperament dimensions conceptually related to ADHD at 2 years. TBR was not altered in infants with a family history of ASD.

Conclusions: This is the first demonstration that alterations in TBR are present prior to behavioural symptoms of ADHD. However, these alterations manifest differently than those sometimes observed in older children with an ADHD diagnosis. Importantly, altered TBR was not seen in infants at elevated likelihood of developing ASD, suggesting a degree of specificity to ADHD. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that there are brain changes associated with a family history of ADHD observable in the first year of life.

Keywords: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; autism spectrum disorder; electroencephalography; infancy; theta-beta ratio.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure detailing 10 months EEG task and 2 year ECBQ questionnaire attrition (Panel A) and electrode clusters used in analyses over Frontal (pale blue), Parietal (purple), Posterior (blue), Temporal (green) and Cz regions (red). (Panel B). Whole Head analyses involve electrode numbers 1–124
Figure 2
Figure 2
Raincloud plots showing TBR‐Low (collapsed across Condition) over the whole head in our four groups (Panel A) and between our ADHD‐L and No ADHD‐L groups (Panel B), with corresponding topographic plots
Figure 3
Figure 3
Raincloud plots showing TBR‐Low over frontal (Panel A), parietal (Panel B), posterior (Panel C), temporal (Panel D) and central (Panel E) regions for ADHD‐L and No ADHD‐L participants
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatter graphs showing TBR‐Low over the whole head and ECBQ Surgency (Panel A), Impulsivity (Panel B) and Sociability (Panel C) scores in the ADHD‐L group (blue). The No ADHD‐L group is shown in red for comparison. Topographic plots depict the correlation between TBR‐Low and ECBQ scores for the ADHD‐L group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arns, M. , Conners, C.K. , & Kraemer, H.C. (2013). A decade of EEG theta/beta ratio research in ADHD: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders, 17, 374–383. - PubMed
    1. Auerbach, J.G. , Atzaba‐Poria, N. , Berger, A. , & Landau, R. (2004). Emerging developmental pathways to ADHD: Possible path markers in early infancy. Neural Plasticity, 11, 29–43. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Auerbach, J.G. , Berger, A. , Atzaba‐Poria, N. , Arbelle, S. , Cypin, N. , Friedman, A. , & Landau, R. (2008). Temperament at 7, 12, and 25 months in children at familial risk for ADHD. Infant and Child Development, 17, 321–338.
    1. Barry, R.J. , Clarke, A.R. , Johnstone, S.J. , McCarthy, R. , & Selikowitz, M. (2009). Electroencephalogram θ/β ratio and arousal in attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Evidence of independent processes. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 398–401. - PubMed
    1. Begum Ali, J. , Charman, T. , Johnson, M.H. , & Jones, E.J. , & BASIS/STAARS Team (2020). Early motor differences in infants at elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50, 4367–4384. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types