Hemodynamic response to familiar faces in children with ADHD

Keiichi Shimamura; Takeshi Inoue; Hiroko Ichikawa; Emi Nakato; Yuiko Sakuta; So Kanazawa; Masami K Yamaguchi; Ryusuke Kakigi; Ryoichi Sakuta

doi:10.1186/s13030-019-0172-1

Hemodynamic response to familiar faces in children with ADHD

Biopsychosoc Med. 2019 Nov 28:13:30. doi: 10.1186/s13030-019-0172-1. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Keiichi Shimamura^#¹, Takeshi Inoue^#^{1

2

3}, Hiroko Ichikawa⁴, Emi Nakato⁵, Yuiko Sakuta⁶, So Kanazawa⁷, Masami K Yamaguchi⁸, Ryusuke Kakigi⁹, Ryoichi Sakuta²

Affiliations

¹ 1Child Development and Psychosomatic Medicine Center, Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center, 2-1-50, Minami-Koshigaya, Koshigaya-shi, Saitama-Ken, 343-8555 Japan.
² 2Department of Pediatrics, Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center, Saitama, Japan.
³ 3Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario Canada.
⁴ 4Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Chiba, Japan.
⁵ 5Department of Clothing, Osaka Shoin Women's University, Osaka, Japan.
⁶ 6Faculty of Human Life Sciences, Jissen Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ 7Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Kanagawa, Japan.
⁸ 8Department of Psychology, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁹ 9Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Aichi, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: School-age children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in interpersonal relationships, in addition to impaired facial expression perception and recognition. For successful social interactions, the ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces is critical. However, there are no published reports on the recognition of familiar and unfamiliar faces by children with ADHD.

Methods: We evaluated the neural correlates of familiar and unfamiliar facial recognition in children with ADHD compared to typically developing (TD) children. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure hemodynamic responses on the bilateral temporal regions while participants looked at photographs of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Nine boys with ADHD and 14 age-matched TD boys participated in the study. fNIRS data were Z-scored prior to analysis.

Results: During familiar face processing, TD children only showed significant activity in the late phase, while ADHD children showed significant activity in both the early and late phases. Additionally, the boys with ADHD did not show right hemispheric lateralization to familiar faces.

Conclusions: This study is the first to assess brain activity during familiar face processing in boys with ADHD using fNIRS. These findings of atypical patterns of brain activity in boys with ADHD may be related to social cognitive impairments from ADHD.

Keywords: ADHD; Face recognition; Familiar face; The superior temporal sulci; fNIRS.