Compressed cerebro-cerebellar functional gradients in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 45; no. 13; p. e26796
• Main Authors: Cao, Qingquan, Wang, Pan, Zhang, Ziqian, Castellanos, F Xavier, Biswal, Bharat B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Abnormalities; Adolescent; Adolescents; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnostic imaging; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Brain architecture; Cerebellum; Cerebellum - diagnostic imaging; Cerebellum - physiopathology; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Child; Children; Concentration gradient; Connectivity analysis; Connectome; Default Mode Network - diagnostic imaging; Default Mode Network - physiopathology; Female; Hierarchies; Humans; Hyperactivity; Information processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical imaging; Nerve Net - diagnostic imaging; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Teenagers; ADHD; compression pattern; interaction effect; age; cerebro‐cerebellar functional gradient
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26796

Both cortical and cerebellar developmental differences have been implicated in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recently accumulating neuroimaging studies have highlighted hierarchies as a fundamental principle of brain organization, suggesting the importance of assessing hierarchy abnormalities in ADHD. A novel gradient-based resting-state functional connectivity analysis was applied to investigate the cerebro-cerebellar disturbed hierarchy in children and adolescents with ADHD. We found that the interaction of functional gradient between diagnosis and age was concentrated in default mode network (DMN) and visual network (VN). At the same time, we also found that the opposite gradient changes of DMN and VN caused the compression of the cortical main gradient in ADHD patients, implicating the co-occurrence of both low- (visual processing) and high-order (self-related thought) cognitive dysfunction manifesting in abnormal cerebro-cerebellar organizational hierarchy in ADHD. Our study provides a neurobiological framework to better understand the co-occurrence and interaction of both low-level and high-level functional abnormalities in the cortex and cerebellum in ADHD.