Publications by authors named "Timothy Silk"

Objectives: To determine ADHD research priorities from the perspective of ADHD professionals internationally.

Method: A two-stage modified Delphi design was used. In Stage 1 (qualitative), participants listed research questions relating to ADHD that they perceived to be most important ( = 132).

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There is robust evidence implicating inhibitory deficits as a fundamental behavioural phenotype in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, prior studies have not directly investigated the role in which white matter properties within the fronto-basal-ganglia circuit may play in the development of inhibitory control deficits in this group. Combining recent advancements in brain-behavioural modelling, we mapped the development of stop-signal task (SST) performance and fronto-basal-ganglia maturation in a longitudinal sample of children aged 9-14 with and without ADHD.

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Objective: To validate a residual-based cognitive reserve (CR) index optimized for a pediatric sample with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method: Participants were = 115 children aged 9.5-13 years at baseline ( = 10.

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  • Adversity during childhood, like experiencing threats or deprivation, can lead to mental health issues later in life.
  • This study looked at how early puberty might be a reason for this link, especially in kids aged 9-14 years.
  • The results showed that experiencing threats made kids go through puberty earlier, which in turn was related to more mental health symptoms, but this effect was similar for both boys and girls.
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  • Head motion can mess up MRI results, especially in kids with ADHD, which is a condition that makes it hard to pay attention.
  • A study looked at how head motion changed as kids aged, comparing 105 kids with ADHD to 84 kids without it, from ages 9 to 14.
  • The results showed that head motion decreased as kids got older, but kids with ADHD moved their heads more than kids without ADHD, even if they seemed better later on.
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In adults, individual differences in procedural learning (PL) are associated with white matter organization within the basal ganglia-cerebellar circuit. However, no research has examined whether this circuitry is related to individual differences in PL during childhood. Here, 28 children (M = 10.

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  • Researchers studied Tourette syndrome (TS) to understand the feelings that happen before tics, which are movements or sounds people with TS make.
  • They looked at how different brain areas light up when healthy people have common urges, like needing to cough or blink.
  • They found that some brain areas involved in these everyday urges are also similar to the ones activated in people with TS, which may help us understand why tics happen.
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Despite the important role of motor imagery (MI) in motor development, our understanding of the contribution of white matter fibre properties to MI performance in childhood remains limited. To provide novel insight into the white matter correlates of MI performance, this study examined the association between white matter fibre properties and motor imagery performance in a sample of typically developing children. High angular diffusion weighted imaging data were collected from 22 typically developing children aged 6-14 years (12 female, M= 10.

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While procedural learning (PL) has been implicated in delayed motor skill observed in developmental coordination disorder (DCD), few studies have considered the impact of co-occurring attentional problems. Furthermore, the neurostructural basis of PL in children remains unclear. We investigated PL in children with DCD while controlling for inattention symptoms, and examined the role of fronto-basal ganglia-cerebellar morphology in PL.

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Background: During childhood and adolescence, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with changes in symptoms and brain structures, but the link between brain structure and function remains unclear. The limbic system, often termed the "emotional network," plays an important role in a number of neurodevelopmental disorders, yet this brain network remains largely unexplored in ADHD. Investigating the developmental trajectories of key limbic system structures during childhood and adolescence will provide novel insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of ADHD.

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Puberty is linked to mental health problems during adolescence, and in particular, the timing of puberty is thought to be an important risk factor. This study developed a new measure of pubertal timing that was built upon multiple pubertal features and their nonlinear changes over time (i.e.

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Myelination of human brain white matter (WM) continues into adulthood following birth, facilitating connection within and between brain networks. In vivo MRI studies using diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) suggest microstructural properties of brain WM increase over childhood and adolescence. Although DWI metrics, such as fractional anisotropy (FA), could reflect axonal myelination, they are not specific to myelin and could also represent other elements of WM microstructure, for example, fibre architecture, axon diameter and cell swelling.

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Objective: To model cognitive reserve (CR) longitudinally in a neurodiverse pediatric sample using a residual index approach, and to test the criterion and construct validity of this index.

Method: Participants were = 115 children aged 9.5-13 years at baseline ( = 10.

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Purpose: Earlier pubertal timing is an important predictor of emotional and behavioral problems during adolescence. The current study undertook a comprehensive investigation of whether the social environment can buffer or amplify the associations between pubertal timing and emotional and behavioral problems.

Methods: Research questions were examined in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large population representative sample in the United States.

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Functional connectivity is scaffolded by the structural connections of the brain. Disruptions of either structural or functional connectivity can lead to deficits in cognitive functions and increase the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To date, very little research has examined the association between structural and functional connectivity in typical development, while no studies have attempted to understand the development of structure-function coupling in children with ADHD.

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  • ADHD is a condition that makes it hard for some kids to focus and remember things, and it's linked to problems in a part of the brain called the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF).
  • A study looked at 64 kids with ADHD and 58 kids without it to see how their SLF affected their working memory using special brain scans and memory games.
  • Results showed that kids with ADHD had worse working memory and less healthy SLF compared to kids without ADHD, suggesting that the SLF is important for memory skills.
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Background: Undergoing puberty ahead of peers ('earlier pubertal timing') is an important risk factor for mental health problems during early adolescence. The current study examined pathways between pubertal timing and mental health via connectivity of neural systems implicated in emotional reactivity and regulation (specifically corticolimbic connections) in 9- to 14-year-olds.

Method: Research questions were examined in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large population representative sample in the United States.

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  • Tics are quick movements or sounds that some people make, and scientists study them to understand how the brain works.
  • The research looked at brain connections from patients with tics caused by brain problems to see if they are similar to those seen in people with Tourette syndrome.
  • They found a common brain network linked to both types of tics, and tested this network to see if it works differently in people with Tourette syndrome compared to healthy people.
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. Given the profound brain changes that occur during childhood and adolescence, it is important to examine longitudinal changes of both functional and structural brain connectivity across development in ADHD. This study aimed to examine the development of functional and structural connectivity in children with ADHD compared to controls using graph metrics.

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Background: Few longitudinal studies have investigated whether white matter development reflects differential outcomes for children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To examine whether deviations from typical trajectories of white matter development were associated with the persistence or remission of ADHD symptoms, this study examined microstructural and morphological properties of 71 white matter tracts from 390 high angular diffusion scans acquired prospectively for 62 children with persistent ADHD, 37 children remitted from ADHD, and 85 children without ADHD.

Methods: Participants (mean age at wave 1 = 10.

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  • The study looked at about 11,500 kids aged 9-13 to understand how the timing of puberty affects brain development and mental health.
  • It found that starting puberty earlier could speed up brain growth, especially in certain brain areas for girls and boys.
  • Although earlier puberty was linked to more mental health issues, the actual brain age didn't seem to influence these problems.
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Background: Methylphenidate, a first-line treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is thought to influence dopaminergic neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and its associated brain circuitry, but this hypothesis has yet to be systematically tested.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover trial including 27 children with ADHD. Children with ADHD were scanned twice with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging under methylphenidate and placebo conditions, along with assessment of sustained attention.

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  • Researchers have found changes in cerebellar structure in children with autism, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder, but it's unclear if these changes are common across conditions or specific to each disorder.
  • The study analyzed MRI scans from 252 children aged 7 to 12, focusing on the grey matter volume of 27 cerebellar lobules using a voxel-wise approach.
  • Results showed that children with ADHD had lower grey matter volume in a specific cerebellar region compared to controls, but this finding wasn't significant when accounting for medication status, and no notable differences were found in children with ASD or DCD.
  • Future research aims to combine behavioral data to further investigate differences and similarities across these neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Response inhibition refers to the cancelling of planned (or restraining of ongoing) actions and is required in much of our everyday life. Response inhibition appears to improve dramatically in early development and plateau in adolescence. The fronto-basal-ganglia network has long been shown to predict individual differences in the ability to enact response inhibition.

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Sustained attention is a cognitive function with known links to academic success and mental health disorders such as attention/deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Several functional networks are critical to sustained attention, however the association between white matter maturation in tracts linking functional nodes and sustained attention in typical and atypical development is unknown. 309 diffusion-weighted imaging scans were acquired from 161 children and adolescents (80 ADHD, 81 control) at up to three timepoints over ages 9-14.

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