Interesting quote:
"The different volumes of the five brain regions involved in ADHD were present whether or not people had taken medication, suggesting the differences in brain volumes are not a result of psychostimulants."
Being an extremely hyperactive child (whom my mother refused to medicate and instead just disciplined me often), I always knew I was different. Not special different, just different in an annoying hard to fit in way. I find it interesting the "sides" in this debate when other studies also find entirely different brain chemistry in ADD/ADHD (whatever the flavor of the day to call it is). People with this demeanor tend to gravitate very heavily towards engineering / technology related fields and excel, although I never understood why.<p>The way I describe it to most people is very simple. If you give a ADD/ADHD child Ritalin, Adderol, etc, they will calm down. You give those drugs to a normal child and they get super hyperactive. Inversely, you give most people a stimulant such as caffeine and their heart beat increases and they perk up. I've always been very careful about coffee in the morning or teas as it is very much a calming downer. Sometimes I will drink a coffee to really calm my (always thinking too much) brain and let me focus, but can't do it if I'm the least bit tired as I'll be more inclined to doze off mid day.<p>I'm happy to see more actual science that shows this is a real thing, not something made up by an impatient child or child who had lots of trouble paying attention in school.<p>EDIT: Removed the first paragraph where I was thankfully wrong. Thanks geoelectric and filoeg for beating me with the cluebat, it is appreciated.
How did this get so high up on HN? This is in no way a breakthrough.<p>The volume of scans and age ranges help nail down etiology, but the article and commentary here suggest that we didn't know what brain structures were involved or that ADHD is a "brain based disorder."<p>We've been doing MRI research on ADHD for decades[0] and independent longitudinal studies that track ADHD children into adulthood[1].<p>[0]: <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11101521" rel="nofollow">http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.201...</a><p>[1]: <a href="http://www.guilford.com/books/ADHD-in-Adults/Barkley-Murphy-Fischer/9781609180751/authors" rel="nofollow">http://www.guilford.com/books/ADHD-in-Adults/Barkley-Murphy-...</a>
Okay so now an MRI brain scan will be par-for-the-course for children thought to be experiencing ADHD symptoms in advance of prescribing medication, right? Seems reasonable. Otherwise how else can one objectively note whether an ADHD "brain issue" is at fault or, uh, simple emotional adaptive recalcitrance?