Yale study identifies ADHD biomarker

A brain imaging study out of Yale University has identified the Sustained Attention Network, a set of neural connections whose strength -- measured by functional MRI (fMRI) -- can predict clinical scores of patients with ADHD. The findings underscore the biological basis of the disorder and provide insight into the neural circuits that mediate attention. The group also suggested that the SAN could be developed as a biomarker for clinical trials.

Researchers identified the network, which comprises a variety of cortical and subcortical areas, by correlating the strength of all possible connections among 268 brain regions with the performance of healthy individuals on an attention-demanding task. The researchers showed that the network's strength could also be measured when subjects were resting and not performing a task. Resting state measurements alone predicted performance on the attention task. ...