Abstract
Childhood trauma can lead to various psychological and cognitive symptoms. It has been demonstrated that high frequency electroencephalogram (EEG) powers could be closely correlated with inattention. In this study, we explored the relationship between high frequency EEG powers, inattention, symptoms of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and childhood traumatic experiences. A total of 157 healthy Korean adult volunteers were included and divided into two groups using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) score. The subjective inattention scores, ADHD scale, and anxiety and depression symptom were evaluated. EEG was recorded and quantitative band powers were analyzed. The results were as follows: (1) the high CTQ group showed significantly increased delta, beta1, beta2, beta3 and gamma, and significantly decreased low alpha power compared to the low CTQ group; (2) the high CTQ group had higher inattention score compared to the low CTQ group; (3) the high CTQ group had higher adult ADHD scores; (4) CTQ scores showed significant positive correlations with inattention scores, and adult ADHD scores; (5) unexpectedly, the inattention scores showed significant positive correlations with beta powers and a negative correlation with low alpha power; and (6) the moderated mediation model was confirmed: the depression fully mediated the path from state anxiety to inattention, and the CTQ significantly moderated the pathway between anxiety and depression. Our results show the possibility that childhood adversity may cause subjective inattention and adult ADHD symptoms. Depressive symptoms fully mediated the path from anxiety to inattention, especially in those who report severe childhood traumatic experiences.
Highlights
Proper attention is essential to successfully function as a human being
The high Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) group scored significantly higher on the CTQ, SAI, TAI, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), inattention and K-CAARS compared to the low CTQ group (Table 1)
We assessed the relationship between high frequency EEG powers, subjective inattention symptoms, adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and childhood traumatic experience
Summary
Proper attention is essential to successfully function as a human being. inattention is common in daily life. Childhood trauma has been associated with cognitive dysfunctions (Perez and Widom, 1994; Pechtel and Pizzagalli, 2011), including attention deficits in both children and adults (Hart and Rubia, 2012). Since inattention is one of the fundamental symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Ford et al, 2000), the exposure to traumatic events in childhood is a risk factor for ADHD in childhood (McLeer et al, 1994; Merry and Andrews, 1994; Stevens et al, 2008) and later in adulthood (Rucklidge and Kaplan, 1997; Rucklidge et al, 2006; Szymanski et al, 2011; Prada et al, 2014; Evren et al, 2016)
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