Objective Attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a kind of childhood-onset disease characterized by inattention,impulsivity,hyperactivity as well as widespread structural and functional abnormalities in the brain.Compared to the analysis of cortical thickness,the sulcal morphology is a much more effective analytical method to characterize the abnormalities of the gray matter and white matter.This analysis is based on MRI contrast between gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid which remains stable through the life-span,allowing for age-independent measurements.We compare the sulci morphological differences between the ADHD and the healthy children to help the diagnosis of ADHD.Methods Structural MR images were obtained from 69 children (50 control and 19 ADHD).We used the BrainVISA software to extract 9 sulci for each hemisphere from the MR images and calculated the morphological measures (length,depth,surface area) of these sulci.Finally statistical analysis was used to compare the differences in the sulcal morphology between the control and the ADHD group.Results We found significant increase in the average depth of the left postcentral and the right occipital sulcus,as well as increased average length of the left inferior in ADHD patients compared with normal controls.Conclusions Children with ADHD showed structural abnormalities of the sulci in the frontal lobe,parietal lobe and occipital lobe.This would be consistent with onset early in neural development and could help to identify neurodevelopmental mechanisms that contribute to ADHD.