Abnormal processing of irrelevant information in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

doi:10.1016/0165-1781(94)02509-H

Psychiatry Research

Volume 56, Issue 1, 31 January 1995, Pages 59-70

https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(94)02509-H Get rights and content

Abstract

The presence of a selective attention deficit in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated by administering a trial-by-trial version of the Stroop Color-Naming Task to children, aged 9–12, with ADHD (n = 19) and age-matched normal control children (n = 19). Performance was evaluated on both interference and facilitation components of the task. On the standard version of the task, with equal numbers of color words and neutral words, children with ADHD showed increased Stroop interference (prolongation of color-naming times by color-incongruent stimuli) but normal amounts of facilitation (speeding of color naming by color-congruent stimuli). This finding suggests that children with ADHD show increased disruption of color-naming performance by taskirrelevant information, probably secondary to decreased attentional control over the interference process. In contrast to findings of studies in adults, both groups of children failed to use an attentional strategy to reduce interference when they were administered blocks of trials that varied their expectancy for color word trials. This precluded a direct test of the diminished control hypothesis. There were no significant correlations between abnormal Stroop performance and impairment on the Continuous Performance Test or the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test or measures of IQ or reading performance. The implications of these findings for our understanding of information-processing deficits in children with ADHD and of the neurobiological underpinnings of these deficits are discussed.

References (44)

C.J. Bench et al.
Investigations of the functional anatomy of attention using the Stroop test
Neuropsychologia
(1993)
A. Henik et al.
Disinhibition of automatic mental word reading in Parkinson's disease
Cortex
(1993)
E. Perret
The left frontal lobe of man and the suppression of habitual responses in verbal categorical behavior
Neuropsychologia
(1974)
T.M. Achenbach et al.
American Psychiatric Association
R.P. Anderson et al.
The measurement of attention deficits
Except Child
(1973)
R.A. Barkley
R.A. Barkley et al.
Frontal lobe functions in attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity: a review and research report
J Abnorm Child Psychol
(1992)
D.F. Benson
The role of frontal dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
J Child Neurol
(1991)
C.S. Carter et al.
Attentional asymmetry in ADHD: evidence for a right hemispheric deficit
Biol Psychiatry
(1993)

P. Chee et al.

Effects of event rate and display time on sustained attention in hyperactive, normal, and control children

J Abnorm Child Psychol

(1989)

G.J. Chelune et al.

Frontal lobe disinhibition in attention deficit disorder

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev

(1983)

P.E. Comalli et al.

Interference effects of Stroop color word test in childhood, adulthood and aging

J Genet Psychol

(1962)

J.D. Cohen et al.

Context, cortex and dopamine: a connectionist approach to behavior and biology in schizophrenia

Psychol Rev

(1992)

C.K. Connors

Rating scales for use in drug studies with children

Psychopharmacol Bull

(1973)

V.I. Douglas

Attention and cognitive problems

V.I. Douglas

Cognitive deficits in children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity

P.A. Fournier et al.

Reading level and the locus of interference in the Stroop color word task

Percept Mot Skills

(1975)

C.J. Golden

Identification of brain disorders by the Stroop color and word test

J Clin Psychol

(1976)

E.E. Gorenstein et al.

Performance of inattentive-overactive children on selective measures of prefrontal type functioning

J Clin Psychol

(1989)

L.R. Greenberg

The Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA)

(1991)

S. Harter et al.

Cited by (101)

Distinctive patterns of Multiple Object-Tracking performance trajectories in youth with deficits in attention, learning, and intelligence
2023, Research in Developmental Disabilities
There is a significant overlap in symptomology between individuals with deficits in attention and learning, which is explained by the co-dependent dynamic between the two cognitive constructs. Within this dynamic, attentional resources are allocated to salient stimuli while learning mechanisms distinguish relevant from irrelevant information. Moreover, individuals with deficits in higher-order cognition (i.e., intelligence) can demonstrate difficulties in attention and learning. The Multiple Object-Tracking (MOT) task is a sensitive and versatile measure of attention that has characterized individual differences in attention as a function of higher-order cognition. Exploiting the traditional MOT task’s ability to characterize the allocation of attentional resources to task demands, the current study compared learning exhibited on an attention-based task across neurodevelopmental conditions defined by deficits in attention (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; ADHD), learning (specific learning disorder; SLD), and intelligence (intellectual developmental disorder; IDD). Children and adolescents (N = 101) completed 15 sessions on a Multiple Object-Tracking (MOT) task where performance trajectories were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling and conditioned by the presence of ADHD, SLD, or IDD while controlling for performance on a separate measure of attention, age, and sex. The sample, characterized by below-average IQ and problematic levels of attention, exhibited an effect of learning on MOT. However, individuals with an IDD diagnosis demonstrated decreased baseline MOT capability while ADHD and SLD profiles exhibited decreased slopes, relative to other neurodevelopmental conditions. Taken together, the results demonstrate distinct linear performance trajectories between neurodevelopmental conditions defined by deficits in attention, learning, and intelligence. The current study provides additional evidence to repurpose the traditional MOT task as a descriptor of attention and discusses alternative uses for the paradigm. Overall, these results suggest an eclectic approach that considers attention, learning, and higher-order cognition when diagnosing ADHD, SLD, or IDD.
Functional Connectivity of Frontoparietal and Salience/Ventral Attention Networks Have Independent Associations With Co-occurring Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Children With Autism
2019, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms have worse functional outcomes and treatment response than those without ADHD symptoms. There is limited knowledge of the neurobiology of ADHD symptoms in ASD. Here, we test the hypothesis that aberrant functional connectivity of two large-scale executive brain networks implicated in ADHD—the frontoparietal and salience/ventral attention networks—also play a role in ADHD symptoms in ASD.
We compared resting-state functional connectivity of the two executive brain networks in children with ASD (n = 77) and typically developing control children (n = 82). These two executive brain networks comprise five subnetworks (three frontoparietal, two salience/ventral attention). After identifying aberrant functional connections among subnetworks, we examined dimensional associations with parent-reported ADHD symptoms.
Weaker functional connectivity in ASD was present within and between the frontoparietal and salience/ventral attention subnetworks. Decreased functional connectivity within a single salience/ventral attention subnetwork, as well as between two frontoparietal subnetworks, significantly correlated with ADHD symptoms. Furthermore, follow-up linear regressions demonstrated that the salience/ventral attention and frontoparietal subnetworks explain unique variance in ADHD symptoms. These executive brain network–ADHD symptom relationships remained significant after controlling for ASD symptoms. Finally, specificity was also demonstrated through the use of a control brain network (visual) and a control co-occurring symptom domain (anxiety).
The present findings provide novel evidence that both frontoparietal and salience/ventral attention networks’ weaker connectivities are linked to ADHD symptoms in ASD. Moreover, co-occurring ADHD in the context of ASD is a source of meaningful neural heterogeneity in ASD.
Linking ADHD to the Neural Circuitry of Attention
2017, Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex condition with a heterogeneous presentation. Current diagnosis is primarily based on subjective experience and observer reports of behavioral symptoms – an approach that has significant limitations. Many studies show that individuals with ADHD exhibit poorer performance on cognitive tasks than neurotypical controls, and at least seven main functional domains appear to be implicated in ADHD. We discuss the underlying neural mechanisms of cognitive functions associated with ADHD, with emphasis on the neural basis of selective attention, demonstrating the feasibility of basic research approaches for further understanding cognitive behavioral processes as they relate to human psychopathology. The study of circuit-level mechanisms underlying executive functions in nonhuman primates holds promise for advancing our understanding, and ultimately the treatment, of ADHD.
Higher interference susceptibility in reaction time task is accompanied by weakened functional dissociation between salience and default mode network
2017, Neuroscience Letters
The relationship between task-positive and task-negative components of brain networks has repeatedly been shown to be characterized by dissociated fluctuations of spontaneous brain activity.
We tested whether the interaction between task-positive and task-negative brain areas during resting-state predicts higher interference susceptibility, i.e. increased reaction times (RTs), during an Attention Modulation by Salience Task (AMST).
29 males underwent 3 T resting-state Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanning. Subsequently, they performed the AMST, which measures RTs to early- and late-onset auditory stimuli while perceiving high- or low-salient visual distractors. We conducted seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analyses using global signal correction. We assessed general responsiveness and salience related interference in the AMST and set this into context of the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between a key salience network region (dACC; task-positive region) and a key default mode network region (precuneus; task-negative region).
With increasing RTs to high- but not low-salient pictures dACC shows significantly weakened functional dissociation to a cluster in precuneus. This cluster overlaps with a cluster that correlates in its dACC rsFC with subjects’ interference, as measured of high-salient RTs relative to low-salient RTs.
Our findings suggest that the interaction between salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN) at rest predicts susceptibility to distraction. Subjects, that are more susceptible to high-salient stimuli – task-irrelevant external information – showed increased dACC rsFC toward precuneus. This is consistent with prior work in individuals with impaired attentional focus. Future studies might help to conclude whether an increased rsFC between a SN region and DMN region may serve as a predictor for clinical syndromes characterized by attentional impairments, e.g. ADHD. This could lead to an alternative, objective diagnosis and treatment of such disorders by decreasing the rsFC of these regions.
Behavior, neuropsychology and fMRI
2016, Progress in Neurobiology
Cognitive neuroscientists in the late 20th century began the task of identifying the part(s) of the brain concerned with normal behavior as manifest in the psychological capacities as affective powers, reasoning, behaving purposively and the pursuit of goals, following introduction of the ‘functional magnetic resonance imaging’ (fMRI) method for identifying brain activity. For this research program to be successful two questions require satisfactory answers. First, as the fMRI method can currently only be used on stationary subjects, to what extent can neuropsychological tests applicable to such stationary subjects be correlated with normal behavior. Second, to what extent can correlations between the various neuropsychological tests on the one hand, and sites of brain activity determined with fMRI on the other, be regarded as established. The extent to which these questions have yet received satisfactory answers is reviewed, and suggestions made both for improving correlations of neuropsychological tests with behavior as well as with the results of fMRI-based observations.
Disengagement and inhibition of visual-spatial attention are differently impaired in children with rolandic epilepsy and Panayiotopoulos syndrome
2012, Epilepsy and Behavior
Citation Excerpt :
Consequently, ADHD did not appear to be characterized by significant visual orienting dysfunction. When a 150‐ms Stimuli Onset Asynchrony (SOA) was used, patients with ADHD could not be differentiated from controls in an orienting task using endogenous cueing [102]. Additionally, unexpectedly faster responses for neutral cues than valid cues have been recorded in children with ADHD with a similar SOA [103].
We assessed voluntary orientation and reorientation of visuospatial attention in 313 healthy 6- to 22-year-old participants, 30 children suffering from benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and 13 children with Panayiotopoulos syndrome (PS). The developmental section highlights the late development of reorienting skills. Only children with BECTS-R showed a strong tendency toward a rightward bias in attentional orientation. Additionally, a unilateral deficit of disengagement characterizes the patients with BECTS-R and comorbid ADHD. Right rolandic spikes seem to aggravate subclinical reorienting difficulties. Finally, children with PS failed to diffuse inhibition, except in the nearest area outside the attentional focus. This deficit could be attributed to the typical occipital-to-frontal spreading of the spikes in PS. By showing distinct attentional deficiencies according to the epileptic syndrome and the epileptic focus lateralization in BECTS, the results provide new evidence for alterations of attentional mechanisms by interictal epileptic activity, which probably contribute to learning difficulties.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

ArticleAbnormal processing of irrelevant information in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Neuropsychologia

The measurement of attention deficits

Except Child

Frontal lobe functions in attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity: a review and research report

J Abnorm Child Psychol

The role of frontal dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

J Child Neurol

Attentional asymmetry in ADHD: evidence for a right hemispheric deficit

Biol Psychiatry

Effects of event rate and display time on sustained attention in hyperactive, normal, and control children

J Abnorm Child Psychol

Frontal lobe disinhibition in attention deficit disorder

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev

Interference effects of Stroop color word test in childhood, adulthood and aging

J Genet Psychol

Context, cortex and dopamine: a connectionist approach to behavior and biology in schizophrenia

Psychol Rev

Rating scales for use in drug studies with children

Psychopharmacol Bull

Attention and cognitive problems

Cognitive deficits in children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity

Reading level and the locus of interference in the Stroop color word task

Percept Mot Skills

Identification of brain disorders by the Stroop color and word test

J Clin Psychol

Performance of inattentive-overactive children on selective measures of prefrontal type functioning

J Clin Psychol

The Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA)

Article
Abnormal processing of irrelevant information in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder