1Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
2Mental Health and Counseling Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
3Department of Radiology, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China
4Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China
5State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Abstract 

Methylphenidate (MPH) is one of the most commonly used stimulants for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although several
studies have evaluated the effects of MPH on human brain activation during specific cognitive tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), few
studies have focused on spontaneous brain activity. In the current study, we investigated the effect of MPH on the intra-regional synchronization of spontaneous brain activity during the resting state in 18 normal adult males. A handedness questionnaire and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale were applied
before medication, and a resting-state fMRI scan was obtained 1 h after medication (20 mg MPH or placebo, order counterbalanced between participants).
We demonstrated that: (1) there were no significant differences in the performance of behavioral tasks between the MPH and placebo groups; (2) the left
middle and superior temporal gyri had stronger MPHrelated regional homogeneity (ReHo); and (3) the left lingual gyrus had weaker MPH-related ReHo. Our
findings showed that the ReHo in some brain areas changes with MPH compared to placebo in normal adults, even though there are no behavioral differences.
This method can be applied to patients with mental illness who may be treated with MPH, and be used to compare the difference between patients taking
MPH and normal participants, to help reveal the mechanism of how MPH works.

Keywords

Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

[SpringerLink]