Reduced premovement positivity during the stimulus‐response interval precedes errors: Using single‐trial and regression ERPs to understand performance deficits in ADHD

Abstract

Brain mechanisms linked to incorrect response selections made under time pressure during cognitive task performance are poorly understood, particularly in adolescents with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using subject‐specific multimodal imaging (electroencephalogram, magnetic resonance imaging, behavior) during flanker task performance by a sample of 94 human adolescents (mean age = 15.5 years, 50% female) with varying degrees of ADHD symptomatology, we examined the degree to which amplitude features of source‐resolved event‐related potentials (ERPs) from brain‐independent component processes within a critical (but often ignored) period in the action selection process, the stimulus‐response interval, were associated with motor response errors (across trials) and error rates (across individuals). Response errors were typically preceded by two smaller peaks in both trial‐level and trial‐averaged ERP projections from posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC): a frontocentral P3 peaking about 390 ms after stimulus onset, and a premovement positivity (PMP) peaking about 110 ms before the motor response. Separating overlapping stimulus‐locked and response‐locked ERP contributions using a “regression ERP” approach showed that trial errors and participant error rates were primarily associated with smaller PMP, and not with frontocentral P3. Moreover, smaller PMP mediated the association between larger numbers of errors and ADHD symptoms, suggesting the possible value of using PMP as an intervention target to remediate performance deficits in ADHD.

Neural generators involved in visual cue processing in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

“…With such procedure, Tal & Abeles (Tal & Abeles, 2016) showed that brief sharp waves of ∼20 ms differently distributed over the cortex depending on the different mental tasks can be observed in MEG signals. Few studies (Burwell et al, 2019;Chmielewski et al, 2018Chmielewski et al, , 2019Doehnert et al, 2010;Janssen et al, 2016;Khoshnoud et al, 2018) have previously evaluated the event-related EEG sources in children with ADHD, but none of them have specifically focused on the time decomposition during early visual processing. Doehnert et al (2010) and Janssen et al, (2016) focused on the source localization of the P3 alteration related to target stimuli during CPT and the oddball task, respectively, in ADHD compared to TDC.…”

“…More specifically, we previously assumed that cortical areas related to executive processing were more strongly recruited during the cue-evoked processing in ADHD children than TDC. To our knowledge, few studies have previously evaluated the event-related EEG sources in children with ADHD (Bluschke, Gohil et al, 2018;Bluschke, Schuster et al, 2018;Burwell et al, 2019;Chmielewski et al, 2018Chmielewski et al, , 2019Doehnert et al, 2010;Janssen et al, 2016;Khoshnoud et al, 2018;Leroy et al, 2018), and none of them have specifically focused on the time decomposition during early visual cue processing. Based on our previous work showing the alteration of the P100-N200 components and beta/gamma oscillations (Baijot et al, 2017), we conducted a new exploratory study in order to investigate the source localization of the ERP and the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) over time in ADHD.…”

Unfold: an integrated toolbox for overlap correction, non-linear modeling, and regression-based EEG analysis

“…For convenience, we also offer a flag (“” “”), which allows the researcher to directly model ICA activations (stored in ), instead of the raw EEG. While we can only speculate about this issue at this point, it seem likely that a prior spatial decomposition of the data improves the performance and interpretability of the final, spatially and temporally deconvolved signals (Burwell et al, 2019).…”

Driving Accidents, Driving Violations, Symptoms of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity (ADHD) and Attentional Network Tasks

“…Sixth, following Cortese et al [ 64 ], the intake of methylphenidate has a beneficial effect on cognitive performance and safe driving behavior; medication intake should be thoroughly assessed in future studies. Seventh, individuals with ADHD show higher variation of attention within a given time period [ 80 , 81 ], thus, making it desirable to assess individuals with ADHD at different times of the day. Eighth, given that poor sleep is associated with ADHD [ 82 ], in future, sleep quality should be introduced as a possible confounder.…”