Hemodynamic response of children with attention-deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD) to emotional facial expressions

• Published in: Neuropsychologia 2014-10, Vol.63, p.51-58
• Main Authors: Ichikawa, Hiroko, Nakato, Emi, Kanazawa, So, Shimamura, Keiichi, Sakuta, Yuiko, Sakuta, Ryoichi, Yamaguchi, Masami K., Kakigi, Ryusuke
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ADHD; Anger - physiology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Attention deficit disorders. Hyperactivity; Biological and medical sciences; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Child; Child clinical studies; Emotions - physiology; Face processing; Facial Expression; Happiness; Hemodynamics; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Near-infrared spectroscopy; NIRS; Occipito-temporal area; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.010

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulty recognizing facial expressions. They identify angry expressions less accurately than typically developing (TD) children, yet little is known about their atypical neural basis for the recognition of facial expressions. Here, we used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine the distinctive cerebral hemodynamics of ADHD and TD children while they viewed happy and angry expressions. We measured the hemodynamic responses of 13 ADHD boys and 13 TD boys to happy and angry expressions at their bilateral temporal areas, which are sensitive to face processing. The ADHD children showed an increased concentration of oxy-Hb for happy faces but not for angry faces, while TD children showed increased oxy-Hb for both faces. Moreover, the individual peak latency of hemodynamic response in the right temporal area showed significantly greater variance in the ADHD group than in the TD group. Such atypical brain activity observed in ADHD boys may relate to their preserved ability to recognize a happy expression and their difficulty recognizing an angry expression. We firstly demonstrated that NIRS can be used to detect atypical hemodynamic response to facial expressions in ADHD children. •We measured hemodynamic response to facial expression in ADHD and TD children.•ADHD children showed hemodynamic response to happy face but not to angry face.•TD children showed hemodynamic response to both of angry and happy faces.•The peak latency of hemodynamic response to happy faces differed between two groups.•We found atypical neural basis for recognition of facial expression in ADHD children.