SynthesisBiological psychiatry2014
Effects of stimulants on brain function in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Biological psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06779825 (Impact of Stimulants and In-Scanner Motion on FMRI Neurofeedback and Task Performance in ADHD), which is not on this map. Cited by 146 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Impact of Stimulants and In-Scanner Motion on FMRI Neurofeedback and Task Performance in ADHD
Who cites it
146 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 309 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Boredom-ADHD Nexus: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review of the Evidence.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Pooled it
- Shared and Specific Neural Correlates of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of 243 Task-Based Functional MRI Studies.The American journal of psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Subcortico-Cortical Dysconnectivity in ADHD: A Voxel-Wise Mega-Analysis Across Multiple Cohorts.The American journal of psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Neural substrates of reward anticipation and outcome in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of fMRI findings in the monetary incentive delay task.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative meta-analyses of brain structural and functional abnormalities during cognitive control in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.Psychological medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Sweat it out? The effects of physical exercise on cognition and behavior in children and adults with ADHD: a systematic literature review.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2017Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Neuroimaging in Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) Taking Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Into Account.Neuropsychology review · 2016Pooled it
- Methylphenidate reorganizes cortical hierarchy through dopaminergic modulation.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Effects of fMRI neurofeedback of right inferior frontal cortex on inhibitory brain activation in children with ADHD.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Trial
- Bayesian dynamical system analysis of the effects of methylphenidate in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a randomized trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Single-dose effects of methylphenidate and atomoxetine on functional connectivity during an n-back task in boys with ADHD.Psychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Methylphenidate Enhances Spontaneous Fluctuations in Reward and Cognitive Control Networks in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2023Trial
- Methylphenidate, Guanfacine, and Combined Treatment Effects on Electroencephalography Correlates of Spatial Working Memory in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with cognitive training in adolescent boys with ADHD: a double-blind, randomised, sham-controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2023Trial
- Double-Blind, Sham-Controlled Randomized Trial Testing the Efficacy of fMRI Neurofeedback on Clinical and Cognitive Measures in Children With ADHD.The American journal of psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Correlation between brain function and ADHD symptom changes in children with ADHD following a few-foods diet: an open-label intervention trial.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Working memory training restores aberrant brain activity in adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.Human brain mapping · 2020Trial
- A randomized controlled trial of central executive training (CET) versus inhibitory control training (ICT) for ADHD.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2020Trial
- ExploringJournal of attention disorders · 2020Trial
- The effect of methylphenidate on social cognition and oxytocin in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
86 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPsychostimulant medication, most commonly the catecholamine agonist methylphenidate, is the most effective treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, relatively little is known on the mechanisms of action. Acute effects on brain function can elucidate underlying neurocognitive effects. We tested methylphenidate effects relative to placebo in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during three disorder-relevant tasks in medication-naïve ADHD adolescents. In addition, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the fMRI findings of acute stimulant effects on ADHD brain function.
methodsThe fMRI study compared 20 adolescents with ADHD under either placebo or methylphenidate in a randomized controlled trial while performing stop, working memory, and time discrimination tasks. The meta-analysis was conducted searching PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases. Peak coordinates of clusters of significant effects of stimulant medication relative to placebo or off medication were extracted for each study.
resultsThe fMRI analysis showed that methylphenidate significantly enhanced activation in bilateral inferior frontal cortex (IFC)/insula during inhibition and time discrimination but had no effect on working memory networks. The meta-analysis, including 14 fMRI datasets and 212 children with ADHD, showed that stimulants most consistently enhanced right IFC/insula activation, which also remained for a subgroup analysis of methylphenidate effects alone. A more lenient threshold also revealed increased putamen activation.
conclusionsPsychostimulants most consistently increase right IFC/insula activation, which are key areas of cognitive control and also the most replicated neurocognitive dysfunction in ADHD. These neurocognitive effects may underlie their positive clinical effects.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.