When attention is intact in adults with ADHD

Roberts, Mariel; Ashinoff, Brandon K.; Castellanos, F. Xavier; Carrasco, Marisa

doi:10.3758/s13423-017-1407-4

“…Moreover, using purely exogenous cues (as compared to the hybrid cues used in the ANT), they also found no group difference in the orienting network. Converging evidence for an absence of an orienting deficit, under both exogenous and endogenous control, in individuals with ADHD, can be found in a 2003 review (Huang-Pollock and Nigg, 2003) and in a recent paper using perceptual measures with adult participants (Roberts et al, 2018). As previously described, one study in this FIGURE 6 | Violin plots of the posterior distribution for heterogeneity parameters.…”

Section: Discussion: Adhdmentioning

confidence: 66%

The Attention Network Test Database: ADHD and Cross-Cultural Applications

Arora

¹

,

Lawrence

²

,

Klein

³

2020

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Attention is a central component of cognitive and behavioral processes and plays a key role in basic and higher-level functioning. Posner's model of attention describes three components or networks of attention: the alerting, which involves high intensity states of arousal; the orienting, which involves the selective direction of attention; and the executive control, which involves cognitive functions such as conflict resolution and working memory. The Attention Network Test (ANT) is a computerized testing measure that was developed to measure these three networks of attention. This project describes the ANT, its widely used variants, and the recently developed ANT Database, a repository of data extracted from all studies that have used the ANT as of 2019. To illustrate the potential uses of the database, two meta-analyses conducted using the ANT Database are described. One explores task performance in children with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The other one explores regional differences between studies conducted in China, Europe, and the United States. We are currently in the process of integrating the database into a publicly available web interface. When that work is complete, researchers, clinicians, and the general public will be able to use the database to explore topics of interest related to attention.

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“…In our case, participants had to allocate either spatial attention or both spatial and feature-based attention, as well as employ executive function by maintaining and acting on either 2 (no-switch) or 4 (switch) stimulus-response rules. Earlier studies examining covert spatial attention while attempting to minimize executive load did not find differences between ADHD and Controls [2][3][4][5]. While perceptual precision and attention might be comparable between ADHD and Controls when studied in isolation, it is possible that asking ADHD participants to simultaneously devote brain resources to other processes might allow for differences in perceptual variability to emerge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In the realm of visual attention, differences in accuracy or reaction time have been found in some visual search tasks but not in others (for a review, see [1]). No consistent deficits have been found when probing selective attention with visuo-spatial orienting tasks [2][3][4][5]. ADHD patients tend to have worse executive function than Controls [6][7][8][9], predominantly in response execution and inhibition [10][11][12], but also in working memory and switching between stimulus-response rules [13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We defined a perceptual error as a press of the wrong button among the 2 relevant ones. We optimized the quantitative characterization of perceptual function by: a) using simple stimuli with feature dimensions orientation and color, thus minimizing high-level cognitive effects; b) varying stimuli parametrically along a continuum to estimate psychometric curve parameters (standard in perceptual psychophysics but still relatively rare in the study of ADHD [5,36,37,39,41,42]); c) using an efficient stimulus selection method to minimize the number of trials needed for accurate estimation of parameters [43]. Broadly, our work follows a recent proposal to apply four levels of analysis to computational psychiatry: development of behavioral tasks, fitting of computational models, estimating parameters, and classification for diagnosis [44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A low-level perceptual correlate of behavioral and clinical deficits in ADHD

Mihali

¹

,

Young

²

,

Adler

³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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In many studies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), stimulus encoding and processing (perceptual function) and response selection (executive function) have been intertwined. To dissociate these functions, we introduced a task that parametrically varied low-level stimulus features (orientation and color) for fine-grained analysis of perceptual function, and that also required participants to switch their attention between feature dimensions on a trial-by-trial basis, thus taxing executive processes. Our response paradigm captured task-irrelevant motor output (TIMO), reflecting failures to use the correct stimulus-response rule. ADHD patients had substantially worse perceptual function than Controls, especially for orientation. ADHD participants had also higher TIMO; this measure was strongly affected by the switch manipulation. Across participants, the perceptual variability parameter was correlated with TIMO, suggesting that perceptual deficits could underlie executive function deficits. Based on perceptual variability alone, we were able to classify participants into ADHD and Controls with a mean accuracy of about 77%. Participants' self-reported General Executive Composite score correlated not only with TIMO but also with the perceptual variability parameter. Our results highlight the role of perceptual deficits in ADHD and the usefulness of computational modeling of behavior in dissociating perceptual from executive processes.In Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), self-reported behavioral deficits have been attributed to differences in executive function, attention, and perceptual function. These brain functions can be objectively quantified with behavioral paradigms, but the individual components are often not well separated. ADHD patients tend to have worse executive function than Controls according to several metrics [1][2][3][4], predominantly in response execution and inhibition [5][6][7], but also in switching between stimulus-response rules [8][9][10][11]. It has been pointed out that non-executive processes, such as alertness, accumulation of evidence or drift rate, motivation, or reward processing, might interact with executive ones [12][13][14][15][16]. In the realm of visual attention, differences in accuracy or reaction time have been found in some visual search tasks but not in others [17,18], and no consistent deficits have been found in visuo-spatial orienting [19][20][21][22]. Despite evidence of impaired perceptual function in ADHD from psychiatric assessments [23,24], behavioral studies that examined the quality of perceptual encoding in ADHD in the absence of executive or attentional involvement found small and inconsistent differences (see [25] for a review). There have been attempts to dissociate executive from perceptual function in ADHD within a single task, but the results have been mixed [26][27][28][29]. One complicating factor could be that commonly used stimuli such as faces, letters, or numbers are high-dimensional and have content at many levels. Anot...

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“…In the realm of visual attention, differences in accuracy or reaction time (RT) have been found in some visual search tasks but not in others (for a review, see Mullane & Klein, 2008 ). No consistent deficits have been found when probing selective attention with visuo spatial orienting tasks (Cubillo et al, 2010 ; C. L. Huang-Pollock & Nigg, 2003 ; Roberts, Ashinoff, Castellanos, & Carrasco, 2017 ; Rubia et al, 2010 ). ADHD patients tend to have worse executive function than controls (Boonstra, Oosterlaan, Sergeant, & Buitelaar, 2005 ; Castellanos & Tannock, 2002 ; Kofler et al, 2013 ; Willcutt, Doyle, Nigg, Faraone, & Pennington, 2005 ) predominantly in response execution and inhibition (Barkley, 1997 ; Booth et al, 2005 ; Casey et al, 1997 ) but also in working memory and switching between stimulus-response rules (Cepeda, Cepeda, & Kramer, 2000 ; Halleland, Haavik, & Lundervold, 2012 ; Homack, 2004 ; King, Colla, Brass, Heuser, & von Cramon, 2007 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-Level Perceptual Correlate of Behavioral and Clinical Deficits in ADHD

Mihali¹,

Young²,

Adler³

et al. 2018

Computational Psychiatry

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In many studies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), stimulus encoding and processing (perceptual function) and response selection (executive function) have been intertwined. To dissociate deficits in these functions, we introduced a task that parametrically varied low-level stimulus features (orientation and color) for fine-grained analysis of perceptual function. It also required participants to switch their attention between feature dimensions on a trial-by-trial basis, thus taxing executive processes. Furthermore, we used a response paradigm that captured task-irrelevant motor output (TIMO), reflecting failures to use the correct stimulus-response rule. ADHD participants had substantially higher perceptual variability than controls, especially for orientation, as well as higher TIMO. In both ADHD and controls, TIMO was strongly affected by the switch manipulation. Across participants, the perceptual variability parameter was correlated with TIMO, suggesting that perceptual deficits are associated with executive function deficits. Based on perceptual variability alone, we were able to classify participants into ADHD and controls with a mean accuracy of about 77%. Participants’ self-reported General Executive Composite score correlated not only with TIMO but also with the perceptual variability parameter. Our results highlight the role of perceptual deficits in ADHD and the usefulness of computational modeling of behavior in dissociating perceptual from executive processes.

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When attention is intact in adults with ADHD

Cited by 41 publications

References 67 publications

The Attention Network Test Database: ADHD and Cross-Cultural Applications

The Attention Network Test Database: ADHD and Cross-Cultural Applications

A low-level perceptual correlate of behavioral and clinical deficits in ADHD

A Low-Level Perceptual Correlate of Behavioral and Clinical Deficits in ADHD

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