Individual classification of ADHD children by right prefrontal hemodynamic responses during a go/no-go task as assessed by fNIRS

Abstract

While a growing body of neurocognitive research has explored the neural substrates associated with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), an objective biomarker for diagnosis has not been established. The advent of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is a noninvasive and unrestrictive method of functional neuroimaging, raised the possibility of introducing functional neuroimaging diagnosis in young ADHD children. Previously, our fNIRS-based measurements successfully visualized the hypoactivation pattern in the right prefrontal cortex during a go/no-go task in ADHD children compared with typically developing control children at a group level. The current study aimed to explore a method of individual differentiation between ADHD and typically developing control children using multichannel fNIRS, emphasizing how spatial distribution and amplitude of hemodynamic response are associated with inhibition-related right prefrontal dysfunction. Thirty ADHD and thirty typically developing control children underwent a go/no-go task, and their cortical hemodynamics were assessed using fNIRS. We explored specific regions of interest (ROIs) and cut-off amplitudes for cortical activation to distinguish ADHD children from control children. The ROI located on the border of inferior and middle frontal gyri yielded the most accurate discrimination. Furthermore, we adapted well-formed formulae for the constituent channels of the optimized ROI, leading to improved classification accuracy with an area under the curve value of 85% and with 90% sensitivity. Thus, the right prefrontal hypoactivation assessed by fNIRS would serve as a potentially effective biomarker for classifying ADHD children at the individual level.

fNIRS Studies on Hemispheric Asymmetry in Atypical Neural Function in Developmental Disorders

“…These studies have revealed hypoactivation in the right frontal lobe including the prefrontal cortex (PFC; Xiao et al, 2012; Yasumura et al, 2014), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Monden et al, 2012, 2015; Nagashima et al, 2014a,b,c), presumably because NIRS probes can easily be applied to the frontal region (see Table 1). These studies also found hypoactivation in the temporal (Ichikawa et al, 2014; Köchel et al, 2015) and parietal cortices (Nagashima et al, 2014b) as well.…”

A preliminary study of movement intensity during a Go/No-Go task and its association with ADHD outcomes and symptom severity

“…It is also worth noting that the measure of movement intensity used in this study achieved a better classification accuracy than did a functional neuroimaging procedure using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the course of a Go/No-Go task [41]. This suggests that the movement intensity procedures used in this study might be an effective biomarker for children with ADHD at the individual level.…”

“…Relatedly, it would be worthwhile to use infrared motion tracking technology to identify movement patterns of other mental disorders in order to isolate those patterns that are specific to ADHD. Similar approaches are underway with fNIRS as well as volumetric and functional MRI data from individuals with a range of neuropsychiatric disorders including ADHD [41, 44, 45]. …”

“…Indeed, a key question concerns the sensitivity of this measure to detect clinical improvement following treatment. Assessing simultaneously measures of movement intensity and fNIRS in regions identified in the right prefrontal cortex during a Go/No-Go task, as was done in a previous study, might be another promising line of research [41]. …”

Genetic influences on prefrontal activation during a verbal fluency task in children: A twin study using near‐infrared spectroscopy

“…Abnormalities in task-related brain activation on NIRS have been detected in individuals with developmental disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Ehlis, Bähne, Jacob, Herrmann, & Fallgatter, 2008) and autism spectrum disorder (Kuwabara et al, 2006). NIRS studies also found similar abnormalities among children with developmental disorders and their unaffected siblings, which suggest a genetic influence on the changes in brain activation (Inoue et al, 2012;Kawakubo et al, 2009;Monden et al, 2015).…”