Archival ReportIncreased Echogenicity of the Substantia Nigra in Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Section snippets
Participants
Seventy-two children and adolescents (ages 6–17) participated in the current study. Children and adolescents with an established or tentative ADHD diagnosis (n = 40) were recruited from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from the University of Magdeburg as well as local support groups. Twenty-five had participated in earlier studies, where all participants and their parents were interviewed with a German translation of the Revised Schedule for Affective Disorders and
Results
The ADHD youth showed a significantly larger median SN echogenic size with respect to the greater value of bilateral measurement than healthy control children (Mann–Whitney U test, Z = −3.569, p < .001). The median value was 4.0 (range 2.0; 8.0) mm2 in healthy control participants and 10.0 (range 7.0; 16.0) mm2 in ADHD patients (Figure 3). Results did not change when ADHD patients were segregated according to inattentive, combined, and subsyndromal subtype (ADHD/combined: Mann–Whitney U test, Z
Discussion
With transcranial ultrasound, we could demonstrate that ADHD children and adolescents showed an increase in SN echogenic size that is correlated with symptom severity of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
One of the few TCS studies investigating SN echogenic size in children (36) showed that hyperechogenicity, derived from adult normative data, was common in infants during their first year of life but decreased during childhood and adolescence, implying that a decrease in echogenicity
References (55)
- et al.
Molecular genetics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Biol Psychiatry
(2005) - et al.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviour explained by dysfunctioning reinforcement and extinction processes
Behav Brain Res
(2002) - et al.
Altered midbrain dopaminergic neurotransmission during development in an animal model of ADHD
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
(2003) - et al.
Reduced midbrain dopamine transporter binding in male adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Association between striatal dopamine markers and motor hyperactivity
Biol Psychiatry
(2005) - et al.
Dopaminergic dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), differences between pharmacologically treated and never treated young adults: A 3,4-dihdroxy-6-[18F]fluorophenyl-L-alanine PET study
Neuroimage
(2008) - et al.
Transcranial brain parenchyma sonography in movement disorders: State of the art
Ultrasound Med Biol
(2007) - et al.
Transcranial sonography in movement disorders
Lancet Neurol
(2008) - et al.
Hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra in healthy controls is related to MRI changes and to neuronal loss as determined by F-dopa PET
Neuroimage
(2009) - et al.
Echogenicity of substantia nigra determined by transcranial ultrasound correlates with severity of Parkinsonian symptoms induced by neuroleptic therapy
Biol Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for School-Age Children - Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL): Initial reliability and validity data
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(1997)
Validity of DSM-IV attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder for younger children
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
Size of treatment effects and their importance to clinical research and practice
Biol Psychiatry
Atypical frontal brain activation in ADHD: Preschool and elementary school boys and girls
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
Age and gender effects in EEG coherenceIII. Girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Clin Neurophysiol
Reward-motivated learning: Mesolimbic activation precedes memory formation
Neuron
Personality traits are differentially associated with patterns of reward and novelty processing in the human substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area
Biol Psychiatry
Reward-related fMRI activation of dopaminergic midbrain is associated with enhanced hippocampus-dependent long-term memory formation
Neuron
Toward a pathophysiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Clin Pediatr
Neuroscience of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: The search for endophenotypes
Nat Neurosci
Origins of altered reinforcement effects in ADHD
Behav Brain Funct
A dynamic developmental theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predominantly hyperactive/impulsive and combined subtypes
Behav Brain Sci
Research review: Dopamine transfer deficit: A neurobiological theory of altered reinforcement mechanisms in ADHD
J Child Psychol Psychiatry
Dysfunctions in dopamine systems and ADHD: Evidence from animals and modeling
Neural Plast
High midbrain [18F]DOPA accumulation in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Am J Psychiatry
Altered pattern of brain dopamine synthesis in male adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Behav Brain Funct
Degeneration of substantia nigra in chronic Parkinson's disease visualized by transcranial color-coded real-time sonography
Neurology
Echogenicity of the substantia nigra in Parkinson's disease and its relation to clinical findings
J Neurol
Cited by (23)
A systematic review of ultrasound imaging and therapy in mental disorders
2020, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :BR hypo-echogenicity was also found in PD patients (Šilhán et al., 2015). SN echogenicity was observed in different subtypes of the schizophrenia spectrum (Jabs et al., 2001) and in ADHD, where it was associated with the severity of symptoms (Krauel et al., 2010). In addition to the use of US imaging for characterizing the pathophysiology of mental disorders, an emerging literature suggest that US imaging could provide biomarkers for treatment response in mental disorders.
Midbrain sonography
2017, Neurophysiologie-LaborStimulant Induced Movement Disorders in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
2022, Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent PsychiatryPreliminary study of ADHD biomarkers in adults with focus on serum iron and transcranial sonography of the substantia nigra
2021, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Authors KK and HCF contributed equally to this work.