On May 26, 2025, Dr. Carmel Mevorach, Associate Professor at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, delivered a compelling academic lecture titled "Investigating Dimensions of Neural Differentiation in Attentional Control: Identifying Functional and Structural Features of Atypical Attention."Dr. Mevorach focused on the mechanisms of attentional control and their variations among neurodiverse populations, including individuals with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), autism, and psychosis. By integrating behavioral experiments with neuroimaging techniques, he explored how attentional traits relate to individual behavior, brain function, and structure. The lecture was divided into two main parts: the first addressing response inhibition in ADHD, and the second examining attentional control in autism and psychosis.
Dr. Mevorach first focused on the issue of response inhibition in individuals with ADHD. As a core component of executive function, response inhibition involves the ability to suppress inappropriate or impulsive behaviors—an ability often impaired in ADHD and considered one of its defining features. However, current neuroimaging studies have produced inconsistent findings regarding the neural mechanisms of response inhibition in ADHD. While some report hypoactivation in specific brain regions, others observe hyperactivation or no significant difference at all.
By combining the classic Go/No-Go task—which requires participants to either respond to or inhibit responses to specific stimuli—with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Dr. Mevorach and her team found marked differences between individuals with ADHD and neurotypical controls. During impulse suppression, neurotypical participants exhibited significant activation in parietal regions, especially the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS). In contrast, individuals with ADHD showed reduced parietal activation, with activation levels negatively correlated with symptom severity.
Further analyses revealed that the abnormalities were not limited to local activation but extended to the functional connectivity and structural integrity of the frontoparietal network. Specifically, ADHD participants demonstrated weakened functional communication between the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the parietal IPS. In addition, the white matter tracts connecting these regions—such as the frontoparietal fasciculus—showed reduced integrity. These structural and functional disruptions were significant predictors of behavioral inhibition deficits and altered activation patterns, indicating a multi-level dysregulation in ADHD spanning from microstructural white matter pathways to large-scale brain networks.
Importantly, the study also highlighted the dimensional nature of ADHD-related neural abnormalities: symptom severity was associated with a gradient of brain dysfunction, including reduced parietal activation and compromised frontoparietal tract integrity, rather than a strict binary distinction between clinical and healthy populations. This finding supports a move toward biomarker-based, individualized intervention strategies.
Dr. Mevorach then turned to distractor suppression in autism and psychosis—namely, the ability to ignore irrelevant or interfering information.He introduced a dual-framework distinguishing between proactive control and reactive control. Proactive control refers to the anticipatory suppression of distraction when task goals are known in advance. Individuals with autism tend to perform better under such conditions, exhibiting lower levels of distractor interference. In contrast, reactive control involves responding to unexpected distractions in real time—for example, when the target location is uncertain. Here, individuals with autism perform less effectively, whereas those with psychotic tendencies (e.g., schizophrenia) tend to show the opposite pattern.Using dynamic functional connectivity analysis, Dr. Mevorach’s research revealed that individuals with autism exhibit reduced variability in functional connectivity within the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and that this dynamic inflexibility correlates with the severity of autistic symptoms. Additionally, among autistic children, levels of anxiety were significantly associated with their attentional control style—whether they relied more on proactive or reactive control. These findings suggest that attentional characteristics may contribute to broader behavioral phenotypes, such as anxiety.
Dr. Mevorach emphasized that attentional control serves as a crucial entry point for understanding neurodiversity, with its underlying neural mechanisms holding significant promise as potential biomarkers to support more precise diagnosis and treatment. From a transdiagnostic perspective, attentional traits across conditions such as ADHD, autism, and psychosis do not form discrete categories but rather reflect dimensional continuities. On the intervention front, targeting the neural mechanisms associated with attentional control has shown considerable promise. For instance, Computerized Progressive Attention Training (CPAT) has demonstrated far-transfer effects in children with autism—enhancing not only attentional skills but also academic performance—by strengthening connectivity within the frontoparietal network. These intervention strategies, by directly modulating specific brain regions or neural pathways, offer a precise route for symptom improvement and highlight the potential of neuroscience-informed approaches in advancing personalized treatment.
Through a series of empirical studies, the lecture provided a comprehensive overview of the central role of attentional control in neurodiversity, unveiling multi-level associations from behavior to brain mechanisms. The research not only deepens our understanding of conditions such as ADHD and autism but also offers new directions for clinical translation—by emphasizing individual differences and dimensional characteristics, it paves the way for a shift in neuroscience from population-based comparisons toward personalized medicine.
