Brain arousal regulation in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 261; pp. 102 - 108
• Main Authors: Strauß, Maria, Ulke, Christine, Paucke, Madlen, Huang, Jue, Mauche, Nicole, Sander, Christian, Stark, Tetyana, Hegerl, Ulrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult ADHD; Algorithms; Arousal; Arousal - physiology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Biomarker; Brain - physiopathology; Case-Control Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; EEG; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neurobiology; Rest; VIGALL 2.1; Wakefulness - physiology; Young Adult; Biomarker; Adult ADHD; VIGALL 2.1; EEG; Neurobiology; Arousal
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.12.043

The main aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have less stable brain arousal regulation than healthy controls. We objectively assessed brain arousal regulation using the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig (VIGALL 2.1) to analyze 15-min resting EEG data of thirty-three ADHD patients and thirty-five matched controls. Based on automatically classified 1-s segments we computed mean EEG-vigilance (indexing arousal level) and arousal stability score (indexing arousal regulation). Adult ADHD patients showed significantly lower arousal levels and significantly less stable brain arousal regulation than controls. Multiple regression analysis indicated that arousal regulation (i.e., arousal stability score) predicted the retrospectively-assessed severity of childhood ADHD symptoms, supporting the trait aspect of brain arousal regulation. Our findings support the arousal regulation model of ADHD, which interprets hyperactivity and sensation seeking as an autoregulatory reaction to an unstable regulation of brain arousal. EEG-based arousal parameters may be candidate biomarkers for adult ADHD. •A dysregulation of brain arousal is discussed as pathogenetic mechanism underlying ADHD.•Results support the hypothesis of an unstable arousal regulation in ADHD patients as compared to controls.•The findings are in line with the arousal regulation model of affective disorders and ADHD.