Publications by authors named "Jan K Buitelaar"

Background: Externalizing and internalizing disorders are common in youth but are often studied separately, preventing researchers from identifying shared (i.e., transdiagnostic) alterations in brain structure.

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Previous studies suggest that elevated psychopathic traits, linked to social norm violations and personal gain-seeking, may be caused by impairments in associative learning. Recent advances in computational modelling offer insight into the unobservable processes that are thought to underly associative learning. Using such a model, the present study investigated the associations between psychopathic traits in a nonoffender sample and the cognitive computations underlying adaptive behavior during associative learning.

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Imaging transcriptomics has become a power tool for linking imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) to genomic mechanisms. Yet, its potential for guiding CNS drug discovery remains underexplored. Here, utilizing spatially-dense representations of the human brain transcriptome, we present an analytical framework for the transcriptomic decoding of high-resolution surface-based neuroimaging patterns, and for linking IDPs to the transcriptomic landscape of complex neurotransmission systems in vivo.

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Background: Neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, are highly heterogeneous both at the mechanistic and phenotypic level. Parsing heterogeneity is therefore vital for uncovering underlying processes that could inform the development of targeted, personalized support. The study aimed to parse heterogeneity in autism by identifying subgroups that converge at both phenotypic and molecular levels.

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Background: An Elimination Diet (ED) or Healthy Diet (HD) may be effective in reducing symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but long-term maintenance effects and feasibility have never been examined.

Methods: One-year prospective follow-up of a sample of 165 children (5-12 years) with ADHD randomized (unblinded; 1:1) to 5 weeks treatment with either ED ( = 84) or HD ( = 81) and a non-randomized comparator arm including 58 children being treated with Care as Usual (CAU). Dietary participants were allowed to add or switch to CAU treatment after 5 weeks.

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While impaired response inhibition has been reported in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), findings in disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) have been inconsistent, probably due to unaccounted effects of co-occurring ADHD in DBD. This study investigated the associations of behavioral and neural correlates of response inhibition with DBD and ADHD symptom severity, covarying for each other in a dimensional approach. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were available for 35 children and adolescents with DBDs (8-18 years old, 19 males), and 31 age-matched unaffected controls (18 males) while performing a performance-adjusted stop-signal task.

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Atypical face processing is commonly reported in autism. Its neural correlates have been explored extensively across single neuroimaging modalities within key regions of the face processing network, such as the fusiform gyrus (FFG). Nonetheless, it is poorly understood how variation in brain anatomy and function jointly impacts face processing and social functioning.

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Article Synopsis
  • Autism presents unique neurodevelopmental differences that make it challenging to understand brain anatomy at a group level.
  • The study analyzed neuroanatomical variations in social communication, repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing among a diverse group of autistic and non-autistic participants.
  • Results indicated that specific brain features are linked to autism-related behaviors and are connected to genes involved in brain development and synaptic function, highlighting the biological basis of individual differences within neurodiversity.
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Brain health is a pressing global concern. Poor diet quality is a recognized major environmental risk factor for brain disorders and one of the few that is modifiable. There is substantial evidence that nutrition impacts brain development and brain health across the life course.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial disease with both genetic and environmental factors contributing to its etiology. Previous evidence has implicated disturbed insulin signaling as a key mechanism that plays a role in both neurodegenerative diseases such as AD and comorbid somatic diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). In this study, we analysed available genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of AD and somatic insulin-related diseases and conditions (SID), i.

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  • Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various developmental and psychiatric disorders, and a study analyzed brain volumes in 74,898 individuals, identifying 254 genetic loci linked to these volumes, which accounted for up to 35% of variation.
  • The research included exploring gene expression in specific neural cell types, focusing on genes involved in intracellular signaling and processes related to brain aging.
  • The findings suggest that certain genetic variants not only influence brain volume but also have potential causal links to conditions like Parkinson’s disease and ADHD, highlighting the genetic basis for risks associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
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  • Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various disorders, and a study analyzed the genetic basis of brain volumes in nearly 75,000 individuals of European ancestry, revealing 254 loci linked to these volumes.
  • The research identified significant gene expression in neural cells, relating to brain aging and signaling, and found that polygenic scores could predict brain volumes across different ancestries.
  • The study highlights genetic connections between brain volumes and conditions like Parkinson's disease and ADHD, suggesting specific gene expression patterns could be involved in neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Article Synopsis
  • Low medication adherence and persistence among children and adolescents with ADHD significantly affect the effectiveness of treatment, as shown in a systematic review of 66 studies.
  • Only 22.9% of participants demonstrated good adherence (defined as MPR ≥ 80%) after 12 months, and the average duration of treatment was only 5.6 months.
  • Clinicians should consider that various factors influence adherence, and while long-acting stimulants and psychoeducational programs may help, there is still a need for more research on how improved adherence affects long-term outcomes.
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Many youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience significant long-term impairment and may develop concurrent mental and somatic health difficulties as adults. This is associated with burden and costs for the individual and society which could be prevented through continued support in youth. Yet, only few young people transition to adult mental health services for ongoing care in different countries worldwide.

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Structural neuroimaging data have been used to compute an estimate of the biological age of the brain (brain-age) which has been associated with other biologically and behaviorally meaningful measures of brain development and aging. The ongoing research interest in brain-age has highlighted the need for robust and publicly available brain-age models pre-trained on data from large samples of healthy individuals. To address this need we have previously released a developmental brain-age model.

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Introduction: Parents of children with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) experience more stress than parents of typically developing children. In a cocreation process with experts and parents, a low-threshold application that uses exercises based on the principles of positive psychology and mindfulness was developed. This application, called "Adappt," aims at enhancing the ability to adapt of the parents and caregivers of children with NDDs and at supporting their mental health.

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Risperidone is commonly prescribed off-label in children and adolescents to manage disruptive behavior. This study aimed to investigate continued benefits of risperidone after at least 1 year of treatment and effects of discontinuation on physical health. Thirty-five youths (aged 6-18 years, intelligence quotient [IQ] >70) who were treated with risperidone for at least 1 year in regular clinical practice receiving outpatient care were randomly assigned to double-blind continuation of risperidone during 16 weeks or continuation for 2 weeks, gradual dose lowering over 6 weeks, and placebo for 8 weeks.

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Depression is common in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but preventive behavioural interventions are lacking. This randomised controlled, pilot phase-IIa trial aimed to study a physical exercise intervention (EI) and bright light therapy (BLT)-both implemented and monitored in an individual, naturalistic setting via a mobile health (m-health) system-for feasibility of trial design and interventions, and to estimate their effects on depressive symptoms in young people with ADHD. Two hundred seven participants aged 14-45 years were randomised to 10-week add-on intervention of either BLT (10,000 lx; daily 30-min sessions) (n = 70), EI (aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities 3 days/ week) (n = 69), or treatment-as-usual (TAU) (n = 68), of whom 165 (80%) were retained (BLT: n = 54; EI: n = 52; TAU: n = 59).

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Predictive processing accounts of autism posit that autistic individuals' perception is less biased by expectations than nonautistic individuals', perhaps through stronger precision-weighting of prediction errors. Since precision-weighting is fundamental to all information processing, under this theory, the differences between autistic and nonautistic individuals should be domain-general and observable in both behavior and brain responses. This study used EEG, behavioral responses, and eye-tracking co-registration during gaze-direction adaptation, to investigate whether increased precision-weighting of prediction errors is evident through smaller adaptation after-effects in autistic adolescents compared with nonautistic peers.

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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; also known as hyperkinetic disorder) is a common neurodevelopmental condition that affects children and adults worldwide. ADHD has a predominantly genetic aetiology that involves common and rare genetic variants. Some environmental correlates of the disorder have been discovered but causation has been difficult to establish.

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White matter pathways, typically studied with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), have been implicated in the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, due to limited sample sizes and the predominance of single-site studies, the generalizability of OCD classification based on diffusion white matter estimates remains unclear. Here, we tested classification accuracy using the largest OCD DTI dataset to date, involving 1336 adult participants (690 OCD patients and 646 healthy controls) and 317 pediatric participants (175 OCD patients and 142 healthy controls) from 18 international sites within the ENIGMA OCD Working Group.

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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (henceforth autism) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition associated with differences in gray matter (GM) volume covariations, as reported in our previous study of the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) data. To make progress on the identification of potential neural markers and to validate the robustness of our previous findings, we aimed to replicate our results using data from the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics Through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) autism working group.

Methods: We studied 781 autistic and 927 non-autistic individuals (6-30 years, IQ ≥ 50), across 37 sites.

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