Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with increased risk for poor educational attainment and compromised social integration. Currently, clinical diagnosis rarely occurs before school-age, despite behavioral signs of ADHD in very early childhood. There is no known brain biomarker for ADHD risk in children ages 2–3 years-old.

The current study aimed to investigate the functional connectivity (FC) associated with ADHD risk in 70 children aged 2.5 and 3.5 years via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in bilateral frontal and parietal cortices; regions involved in attentional and goal-directed cognition. Children were instructed to passively watch videos for approximately 5 min. Risk for ADHD in each child was assessed via maternal symptoms of ADHD, and brain data was evaluated for FC.

Higher risk for maternal ADHD was associated with lower FC in a left-sided parieto-frontal network. Further, the interaction between sex and risk for ADHD was significant, where FC reduction in a widespread bilateral parieto-frontal network was associated with higher risk in male, but not female, participants.

These findings suggest functional organization differences in the parietal–frontal network in toddlers at risk for ADHD; potentially advancing the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the development of ADHD.

No significant relationships.

The sense of ‘loss of control’ (LOC), or a feeling of being unable to stop eating or control what or how much one is eating, is the most salient aspect of binge eating. However, the neural alterations that may contribute to this experience and eating behavior remain poorly understood.

We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activation in the prefrontal cortices of 23 women with bulimia nervosa (BN) and 23 healthy controls (HC) during two tasks: a novel go/no-go task requiring inhibition of eating responses, and a standard go/no-go task requiring inhibition of button-pressing responses.

Women with BN made more commission errors on both tasks. BN subgroups with the most severe LOC eating (n = 12) and those who felt most strongly that they binge ate during the task (n = 12) showed abnormally reduced bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) activation associated with eating-response inhibition. In the entire BN sample, lower eating-task activation in right vlPFC was related to more frequent and severe LOC eating, but no group differences in activation were detected on either task when this full sample was compared with HC. BN severity was unrelated to standard-task activation.

Results provide initial evidence that diminished PFC activation may directly contribute to more severe eating-specific control deficits in BN. Our findings support vmPFC and vlPFC dysfunction as promising treatment targets, and indicate that eating-specific tasks and fNIRS may be useful tools for identifying neural mechanisms underlying dysregulated eating.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by harmful levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and occurs in 2.5% of adults.

This project will evaluate young adults with ADHD in computerized tasks that assess different forms of attention and inhibition, correlating them with self-report scales and physiological measurements (EMG and fNIRS) to identify impairments in specific cognitive domains.

The study will be conducted with two groups: one with ADHD - GClin and one control - CG, with 50 participants between 18 and 28 years each. Initially, participants will perform CPT-3 and respond to ASRS to be allocated to the CG or GClin, with validation by a specialist physician. After that, they will do the computerized inhibition (Stroop / Stop) temporal and spatial attention (voluntary and automatic) tests. In this phase the data will be collected using electromyographic measurements and recording of brain activity in areas of the prefrontal and temporal cortices through fNIRS. After the tests they will complete the impulsivity scales (BIS-11 and UPPS). The analyzes will comprise: (1) ANOVA of the means of TRs and the accuracy of the computerized tests; (2) Correlation analysis of RT, accuracy and ASRS scores; and (3) The fNIRS analysis will use the oxyhemoglobin signal, which will be analyzed individually.

As expected results there will be differences between CG or GClin in relation to impulsiveness, number of errors and brain activation.

The integration of physiological measurements, scales and tests will ensure integrated understanding of attentional and inhibitory processes impaired in ADHD.

No significant relationships.

Empathizing with others’ pain appears to recruit the whole pain matrix, including a collection of frontal regions involved in the affective, motivational, cognitive, and attentional dimension of pain.

This research explored how the modulation of interoceptive attentiveness (IA) can influence the frontal (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -DLPFC- and somatosensory cortices) activity related to the emotional regulation and sensory response of observing pain in others.

22 healthy participants were required to observe face versus hand, painful/non-painful stimuli in an individual versus social condition while brain hemodynamic response (oxygenated [O2Hb] and deoxygenated hemoglobin [HHb] components) was measured by functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). The sample was divided into experimental (EXP) and control (CNT) groups and the EXP group was explicitly required to focus on its interoceptive correlates while observing the stimuli.

In the individual condition, higher brain responsiveness was detected for painful confronted to non-painful stimuli, and a left/right hemispheric lateralization was found for the individual and social condition, respectively. Besides, both groups showed higher DLPFC activation for face stimuli displayed in the individual condition compared to hand stimuli in the social condition. However, face stimuli activation prevailed for the EXP group, suggesting the direct interoceptive phenomenon has certain features, namely it manifests itself in the individual condition and for pain stimuli.

We can conclude that IA modulation promoted the recruitment of internal adaptive regulatory strategies engaging both DLPFC and somatosensory regions towards emotionally relevant stimuli (painful faces displayed in the individual condition). Therefore IA could be trained for promoting emotion regulation and empathic response.

Cognitive deficits are well documented in ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; MDMA) users, with such deficits being taken as evidence of dysregulation of the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) system. More recently neuroimaging has been used to corroborate these deficits. The present study aimed to assess multitasking performance in ecstasy polydrug users, polydrug users and drug-naive individuals. It was predicted that ecstasy polydrug users would perform worse than non-users on the behavioural measure and this would be supported by differences in cortical blood oxygenation.

In the study, 20 ecstasy-polydrug users, 17 polydrug users and 19 drug-naive individuals took part. On day 1, drug use history was taken and questionnaire measures were completed. On day 2, participants completed a 20-min multitasking stressor while brain blood oxygenation was measured using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

There were no significant differences between the three groups on the subscales of the multitasking stressor. In addition, there were no significant differences on self-report measures of perceived workload (NASA Task Load Index). In terms of mood, ecstasy users were significantly less calm and less relaxed compared with drug-naive controls. There were also significant differences at three voxels on the fNIRS, indicating decreased blood oxygenation in ecstasy users compared with drug-naive controls at voxel 2 (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), voxel 14 and voxel 16 (right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), and compared with polydrug controls at V14.

The results of the present study provide support for changes in brain activation during performance of demanding tasks in ecstasy polydrug users, which could be related to cerebral vasoconstriction.