Integrating genetic, psychopharmacological and neuroimaging studies: A converging methods approach to understanding the neurobiology of ADHD (original) (raw)

2007, Developmental Review

This paper aims to illustrate how combining multiple approaches can inform us about the neurobiology of ADHD. Converging evidence from genetic, psychopharmacological and functional neuroimaging studies has implicated dopaminergic fronto-striatal circuitry in ADHD. However, while the observation of converging evidence from multiple vantage points is convincing, it does not necessarily inform us on how these observations fit together. How does a polymorphism in a (dopamine) risk-gene for ADHD translate into a neurobiological substrate and result in behaviors that warrant a diagnosis of ADHD in a developing child? To illustrate how integrating multiple methods may help address this issue, we discuss studies combining genetics, neuropsychopharmacology and neuroimaging approaches. We show how investigators are using these approaches to map the effects of ADHD risk-genes, and common ADHD-treatments on neurobiological measures. Given its central role in both ADHD and in stimulant treatment, the dopamine transporter gene