Frontiers in psychiatry
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2017
Abnormal Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Insular Subregions and Disrupted Correlation with Working Memory in Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Executive function (EF) deficits are major impairments in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous studies have shown that the insula is involved in cognitive and EFs. However, the insula is highly heterogeneous in function, and few studies have focused on functional networks which related to specific insular subregions in adults with ADHD. We explored the functional networks of the insular subregions [anterior insula (AI), mid-insula (MI), and posterior insula (PI)]. Furthermore, their correlations with self-ratings of ecological EFs, including inhibition, shifting, and working memory were investigated. ⋯ The study evaluated RSFC patterns of the insular subregions in adults with ADHD for the first time. Altered RSFC of the AI which is a crucial region of salience network (SN) and part of regions in default mode network (DMN), were detected in adults with ADHD in both results with and without global signal regression (GSR), suggesting that disrupted SN-DMN functional connectivity may be involved in EF impairments in adults with ADHD, especially with respect to working memory. Deficits of the AI which is involved in salient stimuli allocation, might be associated with the pathophysiology of ADHD. The inconsistent results of MI and PI between analyses with and without GSR need further exploration.