Newsfeed display by CaRP SYDNEY--Teenagers suffering from a disorder causing hyperactivity and impulsive behavior have brains which operate differently to those of healthy children, Australian researchers have reported.

Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have major dysfunction in brain regions known to help us concentrate, according to Melbourne University's Professor Alasdair Vance.

Vance said the study found that the brain activity of teenagers with the disorder was lower in two connected neural networks than in other adolescents.

Vance said in a statement, "We found there was less activity in the 'action-attentional' system in the brains of children with ADHD." He further reported, "This system is known to be involved in helping us to maintain focused attention and stops us from getting distracted by stimuli that are irrelevant to the task at hand."

Vance found ADHD sufferers also had less activity in areas used in visual-spatial manipulation but increased activity in other parts of the brain.

"Activity in regions of the brain that are always more active in children than in adults were also apparent, suggesting there could be a widespread maturational lag affecting the brain's neural systems in people with ADHD," he said.

The research, published in this month's British Journal of Psychiatry, was based on the MRI brain scans of 14 boys aged 12 to 16 taken while they were performing mental memory tasks.

It found adolescents with the disorder performed significantly worse on these tasks than other teenagers of the same age. Children with ADHD often have difficulty performing tasks and suffer from concentration difficulties, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior.