Differential activation patterns during visual and spatial working memory in children with ADHD, Dysthymic Disorder and typically developing children
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1
Univeristy of Melbourne, Paediatrics, Australia
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2
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia
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3
University of Melbourne, Paediatrics, Australia
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4
Royal Children's Hospital, Australia
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Dysthymic Disorder (DD) are both associated with difficulties in working memory. Both disorders have been linked to abnormal recruitment of primarily prefrontal regions supporting working memory processing. The present study aimed to determine whether there are differences in the processing of verbal and spatial working memory by directly comparing children with ADHD, DD and typically developing children (TDC).
Twelve children with a diagnosis of ADHD (mean age, 12.3 +/- 1.8), twelve children with a diagnosis of DD (mean age, 13.0 +/- 2.0) and nineteen TDC (mean age, 13.0 +/- 2.4) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing tasks of verbal and spatial working memory. Each task had two levels (low & high load) and a matching control condition (low & high load control) and was presented in a block-design. Images were acquired on a 3T scanner and preprocessing was conducted using FSL software.
Across tasks all three groups showed widespread activation in frontoparietal networks. In the verbal task TDC had significantly greater activation of left frontal regions compared to both patient groups. In the spatial task TDC showed increased activation of primarily right frontoparietal regions compared to the ADHD children and increased activation of left occipitotemporal regions compared to DD children. Differential activation patterns for the spatial and verbal task and across conditions were also found between the clinical groups.
The results of the current study suggest that there are differences in the activation patterns between TDC and children with ADHD and those with DD during working memory and these differences are distinct for verbal and spatial working memory processes. Furthermore, differential activation patterns between the clinical groups suggest disorder-specific abnormalities that may help delineating the underlying pathophysiology between these two diagnostic disorders.
Keywords:
Depression,
working memory,
functional MRI,
Children,
ADHD
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Cognition and Executive Processes
Citation:
Vilgis
V,
Vance
A and
Silk
T
(2015). Differential activation patterns during visual and spatial working memory in children with ADHD, Dysthymic Disorder and typically developing children.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00403
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Veronika Vilgis, Univeristy of Melbourne, Paediatrics, Melbourne, Australia, veronika.vilgis@mcri.edu.au