Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Validity of the executive function theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analytic review.

In this paper, we consider the domain of executive functions (EFs) and their possible role in developmental psychopathologies. We first consider general theoretical and measurement issues involved in studying EFs and then review studies of EFs in four developmental psychopathologies: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), autism, and Tourette syndrome (TS). Our review reveals that EF deficits are consistently found in both ADHD and autism but not in CD (without ADHD) or in TS. Moreover, both the severity and profile of EF deficits appears to differ across ADHD and autism. Molar EF deficits are more severe in the latter than the former. In the few studies of more specific EF tasks, there are impairments in motor inhibition in ADHD but not in autism, whereas there are impairments in verbal working memory in autism but not ADHD. We close with a discussion of implications for future research.

Executive Functions and Developmental Psychopathology

We summarize some of the most important findings from research evaluating the hypothesized causes of specific reading disability (dyslexia) over the past four decades. After outlining components of reading ability, we discuss manifest causes of reading difficulties, in terms of deficiencies in component reading skills that might lead to such difficulties. The evidence suggests that inadequate facility in word identification due, in most cases, to more basic deficits in alphabetic coding is the basic cause of difficulties in learning to read. We next discuss hypothesized deficiencies in readingrelated cognitive abilities as underlying causes of deficiencies in component reading skills. The evidence in these areas suggests that, in most cases, phonological skills deficiencies associated with phonological coding deficits are the probable causes of the disorder rather than visual, semantic, or syntactic deficits, although reading difficulties in some children may be associated with general language deficits. Hypothesized deficits in general learning abilities (e.g., attention, association learning, cross-modal transfer etc.) and low-level sensory deficits have weak validity as causal factors in specific reading disability. These inferences are, by and large, supported by research evaluating the biological foundations of dyslexia. Finally, evidence is presented in support of the idea that many poor readers are impaired because of inadequate instruction or other experiential factors. This does not mean that biological factors are not relevant, because the brain and environment interact to produce the neural networks that support reading acquisition. We conclude with a discussion of the clinical implications of the research findings, focusing on the need for enhanced instruction.

http://www.dr-hatfield.com/educ538/docs/Vellutino,+etal+2004.pdf

Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades?

Article abstract-Objective: To test by MRI-based morphometry the a priori hypotheses that developmental anomalies exist in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in left caudate and right prefrontal/frontal/ and/or posterior parietal hemispheric regions, in accord with neurochemical, neuronal circuitry and attentional network hypotheses, and prior imaging studies. Design: Case-control study. Setting: Academic medical center. Participants: Fifteen male subjects with ADHD without comorbid diagnoses (aged 12.4 +/- 3.4 years) and 15 male normal controls (aged 14.4 +/- 3.4), group-matched for age, IQ, and handedness. Main outcome measures: Global and hemispheric regional volumes (in cm 3 ) of cerebral hemispheres, cortex, white matter, ventricles, caudate, lenticulate, central gray nuclei, insula, amygdala, and hippocampus. Results: Despite similar hemispheric volumes, ADHD subjects had smaller volumes of (1) left total caudate and caudate head (p NEUROLOGY 1997;48: 589-601

Volumetric MRI analysis comparing subjects having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with normal controls

• This study examined the specificity of deviations in patterns of normal brain asymmetry on the magnetic resonance imaging scans of 10 dyslexic, 10 attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity (ADD/H), and 10 normal age- and sex-matched control children. Reliabilities of region of interest measurements for left and right anterior and posterior width and area, length of the bilateral insular region, and length of the bilateral planum temporale were excellent. Both the dyslexic and ADD/H children had significantly smaller right anterior-width measurements than did normal subjects. The dyslexics also had a bilaterally smaller insular region and significantly smaller left planum temporale than did the normal subjects. Seventy percent of the normal and ADD/H children had the expected left greater than right pattern of plana asymmetry, while only 10% of the dyslexic children did. The very significant increase in the incidence of plana symmetry or reversed asymmetry seems unique to dyslexia and may be related to deviations in normal patterns of corticogenesis. Although significantly more dyslexic children were left-handed than were the normal and ADD/H children, no significant relationship emerged between left-handedness, incidence of allergies or familial autoimmune disease, and variability in indexes of brain morphologic findings.

Brain morphology in developmental dyslexia and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity.

A widely variable overlap ranging from 10 to 92% has been reported in the literature between attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH) and learning disability (LD), most likely a result of inconsistencies in the criteria used to define LD in different studies. The following study seeks to more accurately determine rates of LD in clinically referred children. Using a psychometrically reliable methodological approach, it was expected that the rate of LD in ADDH children would be far more modest than previously reported. Subjects were referred children with ADDH (N = 60), children with academic problems (N = 30), and normal controls (N = 36) of both sexes with available psychological and achievement testing. Using a liberal definition of LD, significant differences were found between the groups (ADDH = 38% versus academic problems = 43% versus normals = 8%; p = 0.002). In contrast, more modest rates were found using two more stringent methods of assessment (23 and 17%; 10 and 3%; 2 and 0%, respectively; p = 0.02). Arithmetic-based LD appears to be equally identified by both stringent methods, whereas the liberal definition overidentified children in all three groups. These findings show that a liberal definition of LD overidentifies LD not only in ADDH children but also in normal children.

Comorbidity between ADDH and learning disability: a review and report in a clinically referred sample.

Although behavioral evidence provides support for the notion that attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is related to central nervous system dysfunction, there is little direct evidence to reveal which neurometabolic systems or brain structures are involved. Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies suggest that, compared to nondisabled controls, ADHD children may have a smaller right frontal region. Morphometric analysis of MRI scans was used in this exploratory study to determine whether correlated regional variation might exist in the corpus callosum of children with ADHD. While all MRI scans were judged to be clinically normal, morphometric analysis revealed that, compared to nondisabled controls, ADHD children had a smaller corpus callosum, particularly in the region of the genu and splenium, and in the area just anterior to the splenium. Interhemispheric fibers in these regions interconnect the left and right frontal, occipital, parietal, and posterior temporal regions. These results...

Corpus Callosum Morphology in Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder: Morphometric Analysis of MRI

Social Competence in Children.- Development of Social Competence in Children.- Assessment of Social Competence in Children.- Social Competence in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.- Social Competence in Children with Learning Disabilities.- Social Competence in Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities.- Social Competence in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.- Social Competence in Mentally Handicapped Children.- Social Competence in Children Who Are Gifted and Talented.- Social Competence in Children with Externalizing Disorders.- Social Competence in Children with Internalizing Disorders.- Social Competence in Children with Acquired and Chronic Disorders.

Margaret Semrud-Clikeman

Papers

Volumetric MRI analysis comparing subjects having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with normal controls

Brain morphology in developmental dyslexia and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity.

Comorbidity between ADDH and learning disability: a review and report in a clinically referred sample.

Corpus Callosum Morphology in Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder: Morphometric Analysis of MRI

Social competence in children