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Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

BACKGROUND: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) exhibit a shared phenotype that involves executive dysfunctions including impairments in mental flexibility (MF). It is of interest to understand if this phenotype stems from some shared neurobiology. METHODS: To investigate this possibil...

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Autores principales: Mogadam, Alexandra, Keller, Anne E., Arnold, Paul D., Schachar, Russell, Lerch, Jason P., Anagnostou, Evdokia, Pang, Elizabeth W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6701152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31426750
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s11689-019-9280-2
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author Mogadam, Alexandra
Keller, Anne E.
Arnold, Paul D.
Schachar, Russell
Lerch, Jason P.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Pang, Elizabeth W.
author_facet Mogadam, Alexandra
Keller, Anne E.
Arnold, Paul D.
Schachar, Russell
Lerch, Jason P.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Pang, Elizabeth W.
author_sort Mogadam, Alexandra
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) exhibit a shared phenotype that involves executive dysfunctions including impairments in mental flexibility (MF). It is of interest to understand if this phenotype stems from some shared neurobiology. METHODS: To investigate this possibility, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) neuroimaging to compare brain activity in children (n = 88; 8–15 years) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as they completed a set-shifting/mental flexibility task. RESULTS: Neuroimaging results revealed a similar parietal activation profile across the NDD, groups suggesting a link to their shared phenotype. Differences in frontal activity differentiated the three clinical groups. Brain-behaviour analyses showed a link with repetitive behaviours suggesting shared dysfunction in the associative loop of the corticostriatal system. CONCLUSION: Our study supports the notion that NDDs may exist along a complex phenotypic/biological continuum. All NDD groups showed a sustained parietal activity profile suggesting that they share a strong reliance on the posterior parietal cortices to complete the mental flexibility task; future studies could elucidate whether this is due to delayed brain development or compensatory functioning. The differences in frontal activity may play a role in differentiating the NDDs. The OCD group showed sustained prefrontal activity that may be reflective of hyperfrontality. The ASD group showed reduced frontal activation suggestive of frontal dysfunction and the ADHD group showed an extensive hypoactivity that included frontal and parietal regions. Brain-behaviour analyses showed a significant correlation with repetitive behaviours which may reflect dysfunction in the associative loop of the corticostriatal system, linked to inflexible behaviours. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11689-019-9280-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-67011522019-08-26 Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders Mogadam, Alexandra Keller, Anne E. Arnold, Paul D. Schachar, Russell Lerch, Jason P. Anagnostou, Evdokia Pang, Elizabeth W. J Neurodev Disord Research BACKGROUND: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) exhibit a shared phenotype that involves executive dysfunctions including impairments in mental flexibility (MF). It is of interest to understand if this phenotype stems from some shared neurobiology. METHODS: To investigate this possibility, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) neuroimaging to compare brain activity in children (n = 88; 8–15 years) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as they completed a set-shifting/mental flexibility task. RESULTS: Neuroimaging results revealed a similar parietal activation profile across the NDD, groups suggesting a link to their shared phenotype. Differences in frontal activity differentiated the three clinical groups. Brain-behaviour analyses showed a link with repetitive behaviours suggesting shared dysfunction in the associative loop of the corticostriatal system. CONCLUSION: Our study supports the notion that NDDs may exist along a complex phenotypic/biological continuum. All NDD groups showed a sustained parietal activity profile suggesting that they share a strong reliance on the posterior parietal cortices to complete the mental flexibility task; future studies could elucidate whether this is due to delayed brain development or compensatory functioning. The differences in frontal activity may play a role in differentiating the NDDs. The OCD group showed sustained prefrontal activity that may be reflective of hyperfrontality. The ASD group showed reduced frontal activation suggestive of frontal dysfunction and the ADHD group showed an extensive hypoactivity that included frontal and parietal regions. Brain-behaviour analyses showed a significant correlation with repetitive behaviours which may reflect dysfunction in the associative loop of the corticostriatal system, linked to inflexible behaviours. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11689-019-9280-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6701152/ /pubmed/31426750 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s11689-019-9280-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Mogadam, Alexandra
Keller, Anne E.
Arnold, Paul D.
Schachar, Russell
Lerch, Jason P.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Pang, Elizabeth W.
Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title_full Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title_fullStr Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title_full_unstemmed Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title_short Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
title_sort magnetoencephalographic (meg) brain activity during a mental flexibility task suggests some shared neurobiology in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6701152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31426750
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s11689-019-9280-2
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