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Neuroimaging findings which identify normal brain development trajectories are presented. Results show that early brain development begins with the neural tube formation and ends with myelintation. How disturbances in brain development patterns are related to childhood psychiatric disorders is examined.

The article helps to understand the interpretation of an image by presenting as to what constitutes an image. A common feature in all images is the basic physical structure that can be described with a common set of terms.

The efficacy of anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in studying the morphological features of various regions of the brain is described, also providing the steps used in the processing and studying of the images. The ability to correlate these features with several clinical and psychological measures can help in using anatomical MRI to study childhood psychiatric disorders.

Objective: To examine the association of disruptive behavior with social, adaptive, and family functioning in Tourette's syndrome (TS) with and without comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The sample included 207 children (144 boys and 63 girls) between the ages of 7 and 18 years. Forty-two children received a diagnosis of TSonly, 52 received a diagnosis of ADHD-only, 52 children had TS+ADHD. and there were 61 unaffected control children. Best-estimate DSM-IV diagnoses were assigned on the basis of structured interviews and clinical ratings. Dependent measures included parent and teacher ratings of disruptive behavior, parent ratings of social and family functioning, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Results: Children with TS-only did not differ from unaffected controls on the parent ratings of aggression and delinquent behavior or on the teacher ratings of conduct problems. By contrast, children with TS+ADHD were rated significantly above unaffected controls and similar to children with ADHD-only on these indices of disruptive behavior. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that aggression and delinquency scores added unique contributions to impairment in social and family functioning, controlling for age, gender, and diagnostic status. Conclusions: Comorbid ADHD is highly associated with disruptive behavior and functional impairment in children with TS. When disruptive behavior problems are present, there is an additional burden on children's social and family functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]