Abstract
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD) exemplify top-down dysregulation conditions that show a large comorbidity and shared genetics. At the same time, they entail two different types of symptomology involving mainly non-emotional or emotional dysregulation. Few studies have tried to separate the specific biology underlying these two dimensions. It has also been suggested that both types of conditions consist of extreme cases in the general population where the symptoms are widely distributed. Here we test whether brain structure is specifically associated to ADHD or CD symptoms in a general population of adolescents (n = 1093) being part of the IMAGEN project. Both ADHD symptoms and CD symptoms were related to similar and overlapping MRI findings of a smaller structure in prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex. However, our regions of interest (ROI) approach indicated that gray matter volume (GMV) and surface area (SA) in dorsolateral/dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and caudal anterior cingulate cortex were negatively associated to ADHD symptoms when controlling for CD symptoms while rostral anterior cingulate cortex GMV was negatively associated to CD symptoms when controlling for ADHD symptoms. The structural findings were mirrored in performance of neuropsychological tests dependent on prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions, showing that while performance on the Stop Signal test was specifically related to the ADHD trait, delayed discounting and working memory were related to both ADHD and CD traits. These results point towards a partially domain specific and dimensional capacity in different top-down regulatory systems associated with ADHD and CD symptoms.
Highlights
Top-down dysregulation of information processing is a core mechanism underlying many psychiatric disorders
The analysis showed that Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) and brain structure related to non-emotional top-down control each uniquely explained a part of the variance of the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) score (Supplementary Table 9), while Delay discounting kcoefficient and brain structure related to emotional topdown control each uniquely
We showed that both ADHD and conduct disorder (CD) trait scores correlated negatively with gray matter volume (GMV) and surface area (SA) in caudal anterior cingulate cortex (cACC), dl/dmPFC, rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) in a large community sample of adolescents using a regions of interest (ROI) approach
Summary
Top-down dysregulation of information processing is a core mechanism underlying many psychiatric disorders. EF consists of a set of cognitive control processes associated with top-down regulatory systems in the brain [1, 2]. In line with this hypothesis, reported ADHDsymptoms have been associated with poor results in EF tests the relation has been surprisingly weak and unspecific [3]. In addition to ADHD, there are a set of psychiatric disorders which are characterized by top-down dysregulation in emotional processing. These include Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Antisocial Personality
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
