Development of Cognitive Task for Measuring Brain Activity of Adult ADHD

Abstract

An objective biomarker has not been established for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). In a previous study, the hypoactivation pattern was found in the right prefrontal cortex during a Go/Nogo task in ADHD children compared with a control group, using functional Near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS). The Go/Nogo task is often used for measuring prefrontal activity, and is expected to be applied to examination of adult ADHD. However, it was suggested that the Go/Nogo task for children is too easy for adults to induce significant brain activity. Therefore, we improved the Go/Nogo task to measure prefrontal activation in adults, aiming at development of application for adult ADHD. In our fNIRS experiment, thirty healthy adults underwent the improved Go/Nogo task with three stimuli and a conventional Go/Nogo task with two stimuli. The statistical analysis revealed that the improved Go/Nogo task induced more significant activation in the right middle frontal gyrus than the conventional task.