Event Abstract Back to Event Children with ADHD exhibit reduced attention-based modulation of auditory cortical responses Tony W. Wilson1*, Diane E. May2, Nichole L. Knott1 and Christopher J. Kratochvil2 1 University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Neurological Sciences, United States 2 University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, United States Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder of childhood that often affects inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. The neural regions commonly implicated include higher-order areas such as prefrontal and parietal cortices, as well as motor, cerebellar, subcortical, and unisensory areas. In this study, we used high-density magnetoencephalography (MEG) to probe attentional effects on unisensory auditory cortices in typically-developing children and adolescents and those with treated ADHD (age range: 8-17 years-old). The two groups completed two blocks of binaural stimulation, consisting of ~250 1kHz tones (duration = 50 ms; ISI = 1.2 s) per block, as MEG data were acquired. In one block, subjects listened passively to the stimuli (no task, condition 1) whereas in the other block they were asked to raise their index finger each time a slightly quieter tone was detected (attention, condition 2). The quiet tones were rare and 10 dB less intense than standard tones. The order of blocks was counterbalanced across groups and each block contained the same stimulus set presented in a different order. After correcting data for head movement, bilateral neural generators of the N100m response were modeled for each condition and subsequently used to calculate an inverse spatial filter for deriving source waveforms. Our results indicated that attention to the auditory stimuli increased source amplitude significantly more in controls relative to patients, and that attention did not significantly affect source amplitude in youth with ADHD. These data indicate that despite comparable behavioral performance, top-down attentional modulation of auditory responses was reduced in these young patients. This finding may reflect aberrant functioning within local auditory circuits or a larger scale network abnormality mediated by higher-level cortices. Conference: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: MEG: Clinical applications Citation: Wilson TW, May DE, Knott NL and Kratochvil CJ (2010). Children with ADHD exhibit reduced attention-based modulation of auditory cortical responses. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00298 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 Apr 2010; Published Online: 05 Apr 2010. * Correspondence: Tony W Wilson, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Neurological Sciences, Omaha, United States, tony.w.wilson@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Tony W Wilson Diane E May Nichole L Knott Christopher J Kratochvil Google Tony W Wilson Diane E May Nichole L Knott Christopher J Kratochvil Google Scholar Tony W Wilson Diane E May Nichole L Knott Christopher J Kratochvil PubMed Tony W Wilson Diane E May Nichole L Knott Christopher J Kratochvil Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.