Neurocognitive processes of decision-making in adults with ADHD – Deficits in behavior and functional brain processing, and the effects of methylphenidate

The work presented contributes to the further understanding and establishment of decision-making deficits in adults with ADHD. The meta-analysis in article I clearly identifies deficits in decision-making as an important factor in ADHD. The mechanistic, model-based fMRI analysis in article II provides strong evidence for reduced striatal reward coding in ADHD, and that treatment with methylphenidate at least partly remediates this abnormality. Lower-level cognitive functions are thus disrupted in ADHD, not only higher-order cognitive processes such as attention or executive functions. The data-driven network analysis in article III provided novel evidence for the importance of sustained default mode suppression for successful decision-making, and that adults with ADHD had difficulties in sustaining such suppression