Understanding the neural mechanisms of emotional reactivity in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may help develop more effective treatments that target emotion dysregulation. In adult ADHD, emotion regulation problems cover a range of dimensions, including emotional reactivity (ER). One important process that could underlie an impaired ER in ADHD might be impaired working memory (WM) processing. We recently demonstrated that taxing WM prior to the exposure of emotionally salient stimuli reduced physiological and subjective reactivity to such cues in heavy drinkers, suggesting lasting effects of WM activation on ER. Here, we investigated neural mechanisms that could underlie the interaction between WM and ER in adult ADHD participants. We included 30 male ADHD participants and 30 matched controls. Participants performed a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm in which active WM-blocks were alternated with passive blocks of negative and neutral images. We demonstrated group-independent significant main effects of negative emotional images on amygdala activation, and WM-load on paracingulate gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation. Contrary to earlier reports in adolescent ADHD, no impairments were found in neural correlates of WM or ER. Moreover, taxing WM did not alter the neural correlates of ER in either ADHD or control participants. While we did find effects on the amygdala, paCG, and dlPFC activation, we did not find interactions between WM and ER, possibly due to the relatively unimpaired ADHD population and a well-matched control group. Whether targeting WM might be effective in participants with ADHD with severe ER impairments remains to be investigated.

了解注意力缺陷/多动障碍 (ADHD) 中情绪反应的神经机制可能有助于开发针对情绪失调的更有效的治疗方法。在成人 ADHD 中，情绪调节问题涉及一系列方面，包括情绪反应 (ER)。ADHD 中可能导致 ER 受损的一个重要过程可能是工作记忆 (WM) 处理受损。我们最近证明，在暴露情绪显着刺激之前对 WM 征税会降低重度饮酒者对此类线索的生理和主观反应，这表明 WM 激活对 ER 的持久影响。在这里，我们研究了成年 ADHD 参与者中 WM 和 ER 之间相互作用的神经机制。我们包括 30 名男性 ADHD 参与者和 30 名匹配的对照。参与者执行了一种新颖的功能性磁共振成像范例，其中主动 WM 块与负性和中性图像的被动块交替。我们证明了负面情绪图像对杏仁核激活和 WM 负荷对扣带回和背外侧前额叶皮层激活的组无关的显着主要影响。与青少年 ADHD 的早期报道相反，在 WM 或 ER 的神经相关性中未发现损伤。此外，对 WM 征税并没有改变 ADHD 或对照参与者中 ER 的神经相关性。虽然我们确实发现了对杏仁核、paCG 和 dlPFC 激活的影响，但我们没有发现 WM 和 ER 之间的相互作用，这可能是由于相对未受损的 ADHD 人群和匹配良好的对照组。