Browsing by Author "Rantala, Roosa-Maaria"

Aims. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a heterogeneous neuropsychiatric disorder with core symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Its brain dysfunctions have been extensively studied; however, less is known about the neural characteristics behind daily difficulties. Naturalistic neuroscience aims to bridge this gap between the laboratory and real-life. This thesis studied brain activation in ADHD children during audiovisual stimuli mimicking daily life. In addition, associations between this brain activation and ADHD symptoms/traits and behaviour were examined. Methods. ADHD (n=26) and typically developing children (n=31) viewed videos of the virtual reality game EPELI (Executive Performance of Everyday LIving) during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The participants also played EPELI and their gaming speed was measured. Brain activation similarity, ergo synchrony, between participants during video viewing was measured with inter-subject correlations. Associations between synchronous brain activation and ADHD symptoms/traits and gaming speed were analysed with Mantel tests. Results. Group differences in synchronous brain activation were not significant between ADHD and typically developing children after correcting for multiple comparisons. Without the correction, ADHD children had both increased and decreased synchrony in visual, auditory, and attention control areas when compared to typically developing children. In all participants, hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms/traits had a positive association with synchronous activation in the auditory cortex whereas gaming speed had a positive connection with the visual cortex. Conclusions. This thesis demonstrates that synchronous brain activation in ADHD children can be studied with naturalistic neuroscience methods. The results emphasise the role of visual and auditory areas in the neural characteristics of ADHD.