Abstract
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Neurophysiological correlates of ADHD include changes in the P3 component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Motivated by recent advances towards a more dimensional understanding of ADHD, we investigate whether ADHD-related ERP markers relate to continuous variations in attention and executive functioning also in typically-developing children. ERPs were measured while 31 school children (9–11 years) completed an adapted version of the Continuous Performance Task that additionally to inhibitory processes also isolates effects of physical stimulus salience. Children with higher levels of parent-reported ADHD symptoms did not differ in task performance, but exhibited smaller P3 amplitudes related to stimulus salience. Furthermore, ADHD symptoms were associated with the variability of neural responses over time: Children with higher levels of ADHD symptoms demonstrated lower variability in inhibition- and salience-related P3 amplitudes. No effects were observed for ERP latencies and the salience-related N2. By demonstrating that ADHD-associated neurophysiological mechanisms of inhibition and salience processing covary with attention and executive functioning in a children community sample, our study provides neurophysiological support for dimensional models of ADHD. Also, temporal variability in event-related potentials is highlighted as additional indicator of ADHD requiring further investigation.
Highlights
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity
Associations passing the Bonferroni corrected-threshold of p = .0125 are marked with an asterisk. rpart, Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the partial correlation controlling for effects of age, sex, and SPM raw scores; rhopart, Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient for the partial correlation controlling for effects of age, sex, and SPM raw scores. This refers to six associations: Between ADHD Index and mean effects in Salience-P3 amplitude at POz and Pz, between ADHD Index and mean effects in Salience-N2 amplitude at Fz, between ADHD Index and temporal variability in Salience-P3 amplitude at POz and Pz, and between ADHD Index and temporal variability in Salience-N2 amplitude), ppart, p value of significance for the partial correlation., we found a significant association between more ADHD symptoms and smaller P3 amplitude, but no effect on P3 latency (r = 0.28; p = 0.148 2)
Our study investigated established neurophysiological markers of ADHD symptoms in a subclinical community sample of school children
Summary
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Multiple variations of Stop-Signal, Go-NoGo, and Continuous Performance Tasks ( CPT18,19) revealed differences between clinically affected patients and groups of healthy c ontrols[5,17] In such tasks, children with ADHD typically demonstrate higher rates of omission and commission errors and increased variability in reaction times[20]. Most evidence for aberrant salience processing in ADHD comes from functional MRI studies focusing on interactions between large-scale functional brain n etworks[23,24,25] and from ERP studies using a wide variety of different experimental paradigms[26,27,28] Most of these studies focused on concepts like motivational salience[27] or emotional salience[29] and do not assess neurophysiological responses to ‘pure’ physical stimulus salience. To the best of our knowledge, such ADHD-related effects of physical stimulus salience have so far not been studied in children
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