Evidence of difficulties in sustained attention in children with ADDH

Abstract

It has been suggested that children with ADDH have specific difficulties in sustained attention. Despite some early studies supporting this position, many recent reports using continuous performance tests (CPTs) have failed to confirm this hypothesis. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are outlined and an attempt to corroborate and extend an earlier study (Sykes, Douglas, & Morgenstern, 1973) was undertaken. CPT results in normal children indicated that changes in performance over time, although not affected by gender, were influenced by age. Data from ADDH subjects indicated that they performed significantly more poorly with time on task than did controls. These results suggest that the ability to sustain attention increases with age and does not vary by gender. Furthermore, difficultues in the ability to sustain attention can be demonstrated in children with ADDH. Finally, it is suggested that within-age-level comparisons between groups of ADDH and controls would be more clinically sensitive than across-age-group comparisons.

Equating tasks and sustaining attention in children and adults: The methodological and theoretical utility ofd’ matching

“…Studies in adult vigilance, which typically analyze performance over time, often report decreases over time in the efficiency and accuracy of performance (Warm & Jerison, 1984). Such a worsening of performance has not been reliably demonstrated in research with children (Corkum & Siegel, 1993;Seidel & Joschko, 1990). Many researchers of childhood vigilance do not even assess performance across time, choosing instead to report overall performance (e.g., average hits or response latencies).…”

‘Prefrontal’ cognitive performance of healthy subjects positively correlates with cerebral FDOPA influx: An exploratory [18F]‐fluoro‐L‐DOPA‐PET investigation

“…Specific aspects of these functions can be quantified using instruments such as the Munich version of degraded-stimulus continuous performance test (CPT-M), the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), the Stroop test, the auditory verbal learning test (AVLT), or the n-back task [Dujardin et al, 2001;Fey, 1951;Orzack and Kornetsky, 1966;Seidel and Joschko, 1990]. We hypothesized that the frontal cortex and the basal ganglia operate as a functional unit in the performance of these cognitive tasks.…”

Proposta de instrumento comportamental para avaliar a atenção auditiva sustentada

“…Impulsiveness-related mistakes happen when an answer is given in the absence of such stimulus. 2,3 Medical literature [4][5][6][7][8] has shown that measures using continuous performance tasks have been giving their contribution in the investigation of sustained attention skills in different populations. Nonetheless, in our national reality, the use of these tasks, as well as these behavioral tests that specifically assess this important skill have been proven necessary due to its scarcity.…”