In research that may help improve diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, researchers found that the widely used treatment Ritalin had a surprising effect on a critical but little-studied portion of the brain, Thursday's Wall Street Journal reported. But the effect was seen only on extremely fidgety children.

Previously, research into ADHD had mostly focused on the front portion of the brain, responsible for higher-level thinking. But in the study, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers found evidence of unusual activity toward the back of the brain, in a part of the cerebellum known as the vermis. The vermis is associated with emotional regulation; moreover, defects in the broader cerebellum are tied to learning disabilities, which occur disproportionately in people with ADHD.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a technology that measures blood flow in the brain over a period of time, the researchers found that the vermis was extra-active in fidgety kids with ADHD. Administering methylphenidate, a stimulant sold under the brand name Ritalin, made by Novartis AG of Switzerland , decreased the activity of the vermis in these children, but had little effect, or even a slight increase in activity, on the vermis of children who were diagnosed with ADHD but who weren't demonstrably fidgety. The study involved 10 children with ADHD, and six children without ADHD who weren't given Ritalin.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Robert McGough contributed to this report.

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