Subcortical encoding of speech cues in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

ObjectiveThere is little information about processing of nonspeech and speech stimuli at the subcortical level in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The auditory brainstem response (ABR) provides information about the function of the auditory brainstem pathways. We aim to investigate the subcortical function in neural encoding of click and speech stimuli in children with ADHD. MethodsThe subjects include 50 children with ADHD and 34 typically developing (TD) children between the ages of 8 and 12years. Click ABR (cABR) and speech ABR (sABR) with 40ms synthetic /da/ syllable stimulus were recorded. ResultsLatencies of cABR in waves of III and V and duration of V-Vn (P⩽0.027), and latencies of sABR in waves A, D, E, F and O and duration of V-A (P⩽0.034) were significantly longer in children with ADHD than in TD children. There were no apparent differences in components the sustained frequency following response (FFR). ConclusionsWe conclude that children with ADHD have deficits in temporal neural encoding of both nonspeech and speech stimuli. SignificanceThere is a common dysfunction in the processing of click and speech stimuli at the brainstem level in children with suspected ADHD.