ADHD meds might not be targeting the brain's attention networks

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-12-25 03:00

International

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash. Story by Olivia Henry, Australian Science Media Centre

Prescription medication for ADHD might not affect the attention networks of the brain, according to international researchers. The team looked at brain imaging data of kids aged 8-11, and found that taking these ADHD medications, which are stimulants, instead improve brain performance by reversing the effects of sleep deprivation on brain connections and school grades. They also found brain connectivity changed in the parts of the brain associated with wakefulness and reward, but not the brain’s attention systems. The team says their findings imply the ADHD medications might drive brain organisation towards a more wakeful and rewarded configuration, improving task effort and persistence without effects on attention networks.

Journal/
conference: Cell

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Washington University, USA

Funder: Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multi-site longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 10,000 children ages 9–10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041022, U01DA041028, U01DA041048, U01DA041089, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041120, U01DA041134, U01DA041148, U01DA041156, U01DA041174, U24DA041123, U24DA041147, U01DA041093, and U01DA 041025. A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/federalpartners. html. A listing of participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/scientists/workgroups/. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The ABCD data used in this report came from Annual Release 2.0 (doi: 10.15154/1503209). This work was supported by NIH grants EB029343 (M.W.); MH121518 (S.M.); MH129493 (D.M.B.); NS123345 and NS098482 (B.P.K.); DA041148, DA04112, and MH115357 (D.A.F.); MH096773 (D.A.F. and N.U.F.D.); MH122066, MH121276, MH124567, and NS129521 (E.M.G., D.A.F., and N.U.F.D.); NS133486 (J.L.R.); NS140256 (E.M.G. and N.U.F.D.); DA057486 (B.T.-C.); and MH129616 (T.O.L.); by the National Spasmodic Dysphonia Association (E.M.G.); by Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology pilot funding (E.M.G.); by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience (R.J.C.); by the Behavior Research Foundation (R.J.C.); by the Taylor Family Institute Fund for Innovative Psychiatric Research (T.O.L.); and by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) Bridges at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center through allocation TG-IBN200009 (B.T.-C.). Computations were performed using the facilities of the Washington University Research Computing and Informatics Facility (RCIF). The RCIF has received funding from NIH S10 program grants 1S10OD025200-01A1 and 1S10OD030477-01.

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