Megalographia in Children with Cerebellar Lesions and in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

• DOI: 10.1007/s12311-010-0180-y
• Publication Date: 2010-05-17T11:17:09Z
• Authors: Markus Frings; Kristina Gaertner; Paul Buderath; Hanna Christiansen; Marcus Gerwig; Christoph Hein-Kropp; Beate Schoch; Johannes Hebebrand; Dagmar Timmann
• Keywords: Handwriting; Motor coordination; Attention deficits

Structural changes of the cerebellum have been reported in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in several studies. The cerebellum is a structure essential for motor coordination and motor learning. Beside behavioral deficits, children with ADHD often show slight motor abnormalities. In the present study, handwriting was examined in both children with ADHD and children with cerebellar lesions. By writing the same sentence several times, letter height increased in the ADHD and cerebellar groups but not in controls. Comparable disorders of handwriting in cerebellar and ADHD children support previous studies, which suggest a contribution of cerebellar dysfunction to motor abnormalities in ADHD. However, an involvement of non-cerebellar dysfunctions in ADHD cannot be excluded.