Response Inhibition Impairment in High Functioning Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Data

Abstract

BackgroundResponse inhibition, an important domain of executive function (EF), involves the ability to suppress irrelevant or interfering information and impulses. Previous studies have shown impairment of response inhibition in high functioning autism (HFA) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but more recent findings have been inconsistent. To date, almost no studies have been conducted using functional imaging techniques to directly compare inhibitory control between children with HFA and those with ADHD.MethodNineteen children with HFA, 16 age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched children with ADHD, and 16 typically developing (TD) children were imaged using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) while performing Go/No-go and Stroop tasks.ResultsCompared with the TD group, children in both the HFA and ADHD groups took more time to respond during the No-go blocks, with reaction time longest for HFA and shortest for TD. Children in the HFA and ADHD groups also made a greater number of reaction errors in the No-go blocks than those in the TD group. During the Stroop task, there were no significant differences between these three groups in reaction time and omission errors. Both the HFA and ADHD groups showed a higher level of inactivation in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) during the No-go blocks, relative to the TD group. However, no significant differences were found between groups in the levels of oxyhemoglobin concentration in the PFC during the Stroop task.ConclusionFunctional brain imaging using NIRS showed reduced activation in the right PFC in children with HFA or ADHD during an inhibition task, indicating that inhibitory dysfunction is a shared feature of both HFA and ADHD.

The amygdala and the relevance detection theory of autism: an evolutionary perspective

“…Xiao et al (2012) showed that impairment in the go/no-go task was associated with decreased right prefrontal cortex activity during no-go blocks, while in Schmitz et al’s (2006) study, increased prefrontal activity was found in ASD group for correct inhibited no-go trials. These results seem to suggest that in general prefrontal dysfunction is related to diminished performance in the go/no-go task, but that compensatory mechanism could be observed and lead to comparable performance thus explaining the contrasting behavioral results.…”

fNIRS Studies on Hemispheric Asymmetry in Atypical Neural Function in Developmental Disorders

“…These studies have revealed hypoactivation in the right frontal lobe including the prefrontal cortex (PFC; Xiao et al, 2012; Yasumura et al, 2014), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Monden et al, 2012, 2015; Nagashima et al, 2014a,b,c), presumably because NIRS probes can easily be applied to the frontal region (see Table 1). These studies also found hypoactivation in the temporal (Ichikawa et al, 2014; Köchel et al, 2015) and parietal cortices (Nagashima et al, 2014b) as well.…”

The use of near-infrared spectroscopy in the study of typical and atypical development

“…A number of fNIRS studies have examined prefrontal cortex activity while children with ADHD and controls complete a color-word matching Stroop task (Jourdan Moser, et al, 2009; Negoro, et al, 2010; Xiao, et al, 2012), which requires individuals to cope with the incongruence of a color-word printed in a different color (e.g “Red” printed in blue ink); and a Go-NoGo task (Inoue, et al, 2012; Xiao, et al), which requires the inhibition of a prepotent response. The results of these studies have identified disrupted prefrontal cortical activity in the boys with ADHD, however their findings are inconsistent and difficult to interpret.…”