Measures of attention were correlated with DTI parameters in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, whereas measures of impulsivity were selleckchem correlated with FA in right orbitofrontal fibre tracts. This is the first DTI study

demonstrating disturbed structural connectivity of the frontal-striatal circuitry in adult patients with ADHD. Moreover, a direct correlation between WM integrity and measures of attention and impulsivity is shown. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a frequent psychiatric disorder in childhood and adolescence persisting into adulthood in a considerable number of patients (Faraone et al., 2000). Inattention and impulsivity are the most prominent clinical features of ADHD in adulthood (Seidman et al., 2004). ADHD is highly heritable, and there is convergent evidence that it may be associated with neurobiological deficits in the fronto-striatal network (Castellanos, 1997; Spencer et al., 2002; Emond et al., 2009). Neuroimaging studies of subjects with

ADHD have been predominantly conducted in children and adolescents, and have been mostly based on magnetic resonance Z-VAD-FMK cell line imaging (MRI) measurements (for review, see: Seidman et al., 2005; Valera et al., 2007). Volumetric MRI studies primarily demonstrated abnormalities of the fronto-striatal circuitry [e.g. dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)], but there is also growing literature supporting fronto-cerebellar abnormalities in ADHD (Castellanos, 1997; Giedd et al., 2001; Seidman et al., 2005; Valera et al., 2007). To date, only few MRI studies in adult patients with ADHD have been published (Hesslinger et al., 2002; Seidman et al., 2006; Makris et al., 2007, 2008). Smaller overall cortical grey matter, prefrontal and ACC volumes in adult patients

with ADHD have Exoribonuclease been shown (Seidman et al., 2006), emphasizing that these areas are involved in attention and executive control. Moreover, a significant reduction of the volume of the left orbitofrontal cortex in adult patients with ADHD has been demonstrated (Hesslinger et al., 2002). During the last years, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) became available to investigate human brain microstructure, i.e. the integrity of white matter (WM) fibre tracts. With DTI, diffusion of water molecules can be characterized by two diffusion parameters: (i) mean diffusivity (MD), which measures the rotationally invariant magnitude of water diffusion; and (ii) fractional anisotropy (FA), which provides an index of directional selectivity of water diffusion (Beaulieu, 2002). In brain WM, myelination properties, fibre organization, axonal diameter, fibre density and the ratio of intracellular/extracellular space contribute to differences in FA and MD (Beaulieu, 2002; Schmithorst et al., 2002).