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Subtle motor signs are a common feature in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It has long been suggested that white matter abnormalities may be involved in their presentation, though no study has directly probed this question. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between white matter organization and the severity of subtle motor signs in children with and without ADHD. Participants were 92 children with ADHD aged between 8 and 12 years, and 185 typically developing controls. Subtle motor signs were examined using the Physical and Neurological Examination for Soft Signs (PANESS). Children completed diffusion MRI, and fixel‐based analysis was performed after preprocessing. Tracts of interest were delineated using TractSeg including the corpus callosum (CC), the bilateral corticospinal tracts (CST), superior longitudinal fasciculus, and fronto‐pontine tracts (FPT). Fiber cross‐section (FC) was calculated for each tract. Across all participants, lower FC in the CST was associated with higher PANESS Total score (greater motor deficits). Within the PANESS, similar effects were observed for Timed Left and Right maneuvers of the hands and feet, with lower FC of the CST, CC, and FPT associated with poorer performance. No significant group differences were observed in FC in white matter regions associated with PANESS performance. Our data are consistent with theoretical accounts implicating white matter organization in the expression of motor signs in childhood. However, rather than contributing uniquely to the increased severity of soft motor signs in those with ADHD, white matter appears to contribute to these symptoms in childhood in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the multi-site Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) study was to create a large repository of standardized measurements of behavioral and imaging phenotypes accompanied by whole genome genotyping acquired from typically-developing children varying widely in age (3 to 20 years). This cross-sectional study produced sharable data from 1493 children, and these data have been described in several publications focusing on brain and cognitive development. Researchers may gain access to these data by applying for an account on the PING portal and filing a data use agreement. Here we describe the recruiting and screening of the children and give a brief overview of the assessments performed, the imaging methods applied, the genetic data produced, and the numbers of cases for whom different data types are available. We also cite sources of more detailed information about the methods and data. Finally we describe the procedures for accessing the data and for using the PING data exploration portal.

Written and verbal languages are neurobehavioral traits vital to the development of communication skills. Unfortunately, disorders involving these traits-specifically reading disability (RD) and language impairment (LI)-are common and prevent affected individuals from developing adequate communication skills, leaving them at risk for adverse academic, socioeconomic and psychiatric outcomes. Both RD and LI are complex traits that frequently co-occur, leading us to hypothesize that these disorders share genetic etiologies. To test this, we performed a genome-wide association study on individuals affected with both RD and LI in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The strongest associations were seen with markers in ZNF385D (OR = 1.81, P = 5.45 × 10(-7) ) and COL4A2 (OR = 1.71, P = 7.59 × 10(-7) ). Markers within NDST4 showed the strongest associations with LI individually (OR = 1.827, P = 1.40 × 10(-7) ). We replicated association of ZNF385D using receptive vocabulary measures in the Pediatric Imaging Neurocognitive Genetics study (P = 0.00245). We then used diffusion tensor imaging fiber tract volume data on 16 fiber tracts to examine the implications of replicated markers. ZNF385D was a predictor of overall fiber tract volumes in both hemispheres, as well as global brain volume. Here, we present evidence for ZNF385D as a candidate gene for RD and LI. The implication of transcription factor ZNF385D in RD and LI underscores the importance of transcriptional regulation in the development of higher order neurocognitive traits. Further study is necessary to discern target genes of ZNF385D and how it functions within neural development of fluent language.

To provide insight into what aspects of the emotional circuit might be affected in high-functioning autism, we measured indices of physiological emotions and of the expression of conscious feelings in 10 children with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome and 10 comparison participants. Pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures were presented while skin conductance responses were measured. Self-report ratings of pleasantness and interestingness were taken between pictures. Skin conductance responses did not differ between the groups. Self report ratings were different, with the children with autism giving more similar answers to the two questions than the comparison children. Impairments in socio-emotional expression in autism may be related to deficits in perception and/or expression of conscious feelings; physiological emotions may be relatively preserved.

Background: The executive functions of inhibition, planning, flexible shifting of actions, and working memory are commonly reported to be impaired in neurodevelopmental disorders. Method: We compared these abilities in children (8?12 years) with high functioning autism (HFA, n = 17), attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 21) and healthy controls (n = 32). Response inhibition was assessed using the Stroop Color and Word Test (Golden, 1978). Problem solving, set-shifting, and nonverbal memory were assessed using three tasks, respectively, from the CANTAB[R] (Cambridge Cognition, 1996): the Stockings of Cambridge task; the Intra-Dimensional/Extra-Dimensional set-shifting task; and the Spatial Working Memory task (SWM) with tokens hidden behind 3, 4, 6, and 8 boxes. Results: There were no group differences on the response inhibition, planning, or set-shifting tasks. On the SWM task, children with HFA made significantly more between-search errors compared with controls on both the most difficult problems (8-box) and on the mid-difficulty problems (6-box); however, children with ADHD made significantly more errors compared to controls on the most difficult (8-box) problems only. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that spatial working memory is impaired in both ADHD and HFA, and more severely in the latter. More detailed investigation is needed to examine the mechanisms that differentially impair spatial working memory, but on this set of tasks there appears to be sparing of other executive functions in these neuropsychiatric developmental disorders.

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a heterogeneous condition, varying in both severity and sequelae. The long-term motor deficits following severe TBI requiring inpatient rehabilitation are better established than those following milder forms of TBI. The authors examined motor performance 2 and 12 months postinjury in children without overt motor impairment using standard measures of upper limb function and the Physical and Neurological Examination for Subtle Signs (PANESS). The PANESS was sensitive to differences between children with TBI and uninjured children as well as to changes in children with TBI over time. These data suggest that subtle motor deficits are present after milder forms of TBI and, particularly those related to balance and gait, may persist even 12 months postinjury. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whole-brain network analysis is commonly used to investigate the topology of the brain using a variety of neuroimaging modalities. This approach is notable for its applicability to a large number of domains, such as understanding how brain network organization relates to cognition and behavior and examining disrupted brain network organization in disease. A benefit to this approach is the ability to summarize overall brain network organization with a single metric (e.g., global efficiency). However, important local differences in network structure might exist without any corresponding observable differences in global topology, making a whole-brain analysis strategy unlikely to detect relevant local findings. Conversely, using local network metrics can identify local differences, but are not directly informative of differences in global topology. Here, we propose the network statistic (NS) jackknife framework, a simulated lesioning method that combines the utility of global network analysis strategies with the ability to detect relevant local differences in network structure. We evaluate the NS jackknife framework with a simulation study and an empirical example comparing global efficiency in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically developing (TD) children. The NS jackknife framework has been implemented in a public, open-source R package, netjack, available at https://cran.r-project.org/package=netjack .

The article presents a study conducted by S. R. Risen and colleagues which examines children with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) and determine the relationship between altered connectivity and measures of neurological function. It mention the method of the study which include resting state (RS) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and measurement of motor control.