Luis Prada in Vice:
ADHD exists in this odd diagnostic liminal space where we know it’s a thing, but it’s hard to definitively pinpoint it in the physical structures of the brain. MRI studies have given us mixed signals over the years. Some say kids with smaller gray matter volumes in their brains are more likely to develop ADHD, while other researchers claim the exact opposite. But a group of Japanese researchers might finally be providing some cold, hard evidence.
A group of researchers led by Chiba University, [publishing their findings in Molecular Psychiatry], provided some clarity using something called the Traveling-Subject method, or TS for short. The idea is that not all MRI machines are created equal. The ones used in hospitals are different than the ones used in research labs. Different calibrations, different kinds of coils, different software, different quirks that only people with tons of experience on a specific machine know how to work around or use to their advantage. When researchers combine data from different sources that all used different MRI machines and all the factors that influence those specific machines’ quirks and nuances, the results get distorted.
More here.
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