Response inhibition in attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

An overview of a number of different lines of research is presented to demonstrate that problems with response inhibition are involved in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Response inhibition is defined as the capacity to delay prepotent responses, to interrupt ongoing responses given feedback about performance, and to inhibit responding to sources of interference when engaged in tasks requiring self-regulation and goal-directed action. A considerable amount of research is explored on each of these aspects of inhibition in both children and adults with ADHD. Results in that literature are reasonably consistent in supporting the assertion that ADHD creates deficiencies in each of the three areas of inhibitory functioning. Such deficits appear to be rather specific to ADHD and do not seem to be caused by other disorders that often coexist with ADHD, such as mood, anxiety, and learning disorders. More research needs to be done, however, on whether or not conduct disorder is also associated with difficulties in behavioral inhibition and, if so, whether they are of the same qualitative nature as those seen in ADHD and are simply not the result of the large overlap of conduct disorder with ADHD.

The Real Animal Size Test (RAST)

“…No statistical differences were found between our ADHD and control groups regarding both their RT in the four conditions and their quality of responses in the two control conditions; on the contrary, there was a significant difference in the number of errors in the incongruent condition. Given that no difference became apparent for any other condition, we can assume that these errors, appearing only in the case of interference, could be explained by a deficit in inhibitory control in the ADHD group, an observation that is consistent with previous studies of children with ADHD (Barkley, 1999). However, these data were collected with a sample of small size and future clinical studies, including larger samples, will be required to better determine the clinical usefulness of the RAST for the ADHD population and to decide the best RAST measures to be considered in clinical settings.…”

The relationship between internet addiction, attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and online activities in adults

“…Furthermore, online gambling was more common among participants with high level of ADHD symptoms. This is consistent with previous studies showing that having more severe symptoms of ADHD is associated with increased frequency of gambling behaviours 44,45 . The relationship between online gambling, IA, and ADHD should be further investigated.…”

A new Stroop‐like measure of inhibitory function development: typical developmental trends

“…A relationship between Stroop performance and behavioural pathology has been observed in other studies of non-clinical samples (Das, 1992;Visser et al, 1996) and an association between Stroop performance and hyperactivity is consistent with theoretical perspectives and empirical findings from studies of children with ADHD (Barkley, 1999). The purpose of the analysis described above was to examine support for the animal-stroop task as a measure of inhibitory function.…”