Stimulants remain the most effective and widely used treatment of ADHD, improving on task behavior and minimizing disruptive symptoms. Earlier studies indicating that stimulants have a normalizing influence on subcortical and white matter development (Castellanos et al., 2002) have been extended to cortical development (Shaw et al., 2009) and to the thalamus (Logvinov et al., 2009). Whether this normalization represents activity-driven or treatment-related plastic changes or a more direct neural effect of medication remains unknown.
