Brain areas that control attention were thinnest in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who carried a particular version of a gene in a study by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Children with ADHD who had the 7-repeat version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene had thinner-than-normal areas in their brain's out mantle, the cerebral cortex, which normalized during the teen years. This thickening in areas that control attention paralleled clinical improvement. Composite 3-D MRI scan data for youth, ages 8-16. Colored areas are those in which cortex thickness varied between ADHD patients and healthy controls, with brighter colors indicating greater differences. (Credit: Philip Shaw, M.D., NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch)

However, the areas, on the right side of the brain's outer mantle, or cortex, normalized in thickness during the teen years in these children, coinciding with clinical improvement. Although this particular gene version increased risk for ADHD, it also predicted better clinical outcomes and higher IQ than two other common versions of the same gene in youth with ADHD.

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