Abstract
This study investigated whether treatment naïve adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 33; 19 female) differed from healthy controls (n = 31; 17 female) in behavioral performance, event-related potential (ERP) indices of preparatory attention (CueP3 and late CNV), and reactive response control (Go P3, NoGo N2, and NoGo P3) derived from a visual cued Go/NoGo task. On several critical measures, Cue P3, late CNV, and NoGo N2, there were no significant differences between the groups. This indicated normal preparatory processes and conflict monitoring in ADHD patients. However, the patients had attenuated Go P3 and NoGoP3 amplitudes relative to controls, suggesting reduced allocation of attentional resources to processes involved in response control. The patients also had a higher rate of Go signal omission errors, but no other performance decrements compared with controls. Reduced Go P3 and NoGo P3 amplitudes were associated with poorer task performance, particularly in the ADHD group. Notably, the ERPs were not associated with self-reported mood or anxiety. The results provide electrophysiological evidence for reduced effortful engagement of attentional resources to both Go and NoGo signals when reactive response control is needed. The absence of group differences in ERP components indexing proactive control points to impairments in specific aspects of cognitive processes in an untreated adult ADHD cohort. The associations between ERPs and task performance provided additional support for the altered electrophysiological responses.
Highlights
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent early-onset, neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by severe and developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (DSM V—American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 2013)
None of the participants had more than 23% omission errors, and none had more than 4% commission errors
It was hypothesized that the ADHD group would show changes in event-related potential (ERP) components indexing anticipatory attention and response preparation (Cue P3, late contingent negative variation (CNV)), as well as ensuing processes associated with conflict monitoring and response control (Go P3, NoGo N2 and NoGo P3)
Summary
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent early-onset, neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by severe and developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (DSM V—American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 2013). Neuropsychological studies report reduced performance in a variety of cognitive tasks, including tasks demanding selective and sustained attention, motor response inhibition, working memory, and timing control, as well as more behaviorally complex executive functions such as planning and decision-making [8,9,10,11]. A common denominator of most cognitive tasks examined is the demand for voluntary control over attentional focus and appropriate monitoring of behavioral output. Such cognitive or executive control is linked with the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and its connections with subcortical and parietal network nodes [12,13,14]
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