Evaluation of cases wi̇th attention deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbid sluggish cognitive tempo by arterial spin labeling method

Summary: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo is a clinical symptom cluster characterised with drowsy appearance, slow moving, slow thinking and internalizing symtomts. Variety of researchs in the field of SCT have just been emerged during last 20 years. It is stated that posterior brain regions are associated with attention deficits and early data processing and sustained attention is impaired in SCT cases. Therefore we targeted to investigate several brain areas, particularly posterior ones in this study. We aimed to measure differences in the specific brain regions in children with SCT comorbid ADHD in order to explore whether they show different pattern in comparison to control group. SCT group was comprised of 40 subjects and control group was 24. The go/no-go test paradigm was used during MRI scan sessions and arterial spin labelling was the technique which we used. Statistical analysis of MR data demonstrated activation in both patient and control group during "go" task. This activation was much more widespread in the patients with SCT comorbid ADHD-Inattention subtype. Activation was revealed in both patient and control group but there was no significant difference between patient subgroups. Significant difference between the resting and active state of lingual gyrus, occipital fusiform gyrus, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex was noted. It was thought that this may be related to cerebellar compensating mechanism to reverse attention deficits. In sum paralel with our hypothesis we detected impairment in posterior brain regions in this study.