Interference control in 6–11 year-old children with and without ADHD: behavioral and ERP study

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a hybrid Simon–spatial Stroop task. We compared interference control and conflict monitoring in children with and without attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to examine developmental functional patterns. We found that children with ADHD exhibited lower accuracy rates and longer and more variable reaction time (RT) in both tasks, especially in the incongruent condition. In both controls and ADHD children, the accuracy rate increased and RT decreased with age. Major development in interference control occurred from 6–7 to 8 years in ADHD children and controls, yet only occurred from 9 to 10–11 years in normal children. The ERP results revealed that the N2 potentials were not significantly different from age‐matched controls in the two tasks and that the development pattern of conflict monitoring was not different in school age children with and without ADHD. Children with ADHD had normal conflict monitoring ability.

[1]  Kerstin Konrad,et al.  Is the ADHD brain wired differently? A review on structural and functional connectivity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , 2010, Human brain mapping.

[2]  P. Giannakopoulos,et al.  Working memory load–related electroencephalographic parameters can differentiate progressive from stable mild cognitive impairment , 2007, Neuroscience.

[3]  K. Durkin,et al.  ADHD Outside the Laboratory: Boys' Executive Function Performance on Tasks in Videogame Play and on a Visit to the Zoo , 2002, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[4]  C. Carter,et al.  ERP Correlates of Action Monitoring in Adolescence , 2004, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[5]  T. Banaschewski,et al.  Action monitoring in children with or without a family history of ADHD - Effects of gender on an endophenotype parameter , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[6]  Robert J. Barry,et al.  The auditory-evoked N2 and P3 components in the stop-signal task: Indices of inhibition, response-conflict or error-detection? , 2006, Brain and Cognition.

[7]  C. Carter,et al.  The anterior cingulate as a conflict monitor: fMRI and ERP studies , 2002, Physiology & Behavior.

[8]  Michael J. Larson,et al.  Sex differences in electrophysiological indices of conflict monitoring , 2011, Biological Psychology.

[9]  Janet B W Williams,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[10]  J. Sergeant,et al.  Interference Control in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder , 2009, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[11]  S. Johnstone,et al.  Varying required effort during interference control in children with AD/HD: task performance and ERPs. , 2010, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[12]  A. Rosenblum,et al.  Factor structure of the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS) for substance users. , 2006, Addictive behaviors.

[13]  P. Verhaeghen,et al.  ADHD and Stroop interference from age 9 to age 41 years: a meta-analysis of developmental effects , 2008, Psychological Medicine.

[14]  M. Monuteaux,et al.  Impact of Gender and Age on Executive Functioning: Do Girls and Boys With and Without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Differ Neuropsychologically in Preteen and Teenage Years? , 2005, Developmental neuropsychology.

[15]  A. Philalithis,et al.  Variations in prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder worldwide , 2006, European Journal of Pediatrics.

[16]  L. Jonkman,et al.  The developmental pattern of stimulus and response interference in a color-object Stroop task: an ERP study , 2008, BMC Neuroscience.

[17]  D. Lynam,et al.  Response Style Differences in the Inattentive and Combined Subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder , 2008, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[18]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Conflict Monitoring, and Levels of Processing , 2001, NeuroImage.

[19]  D. Glahn,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of response inhibition in children and adolescents with ADHD: influence of gender, age, and previous treatment history. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[20]  R. Klein,et al.  Interference Control in Children with and without ADHD: A Systematic Review of Flanker and Simon Task Performance , 2009, Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence.

[21]  R. Barry,et al.  The development of stop-signal and Go/Nogo response inhibition in children aged 7-12 years: performance and event-related potential indices. , 2007, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[22]  S. Segalowitz,et al.  Charting the maturation of the frontal lobe: An electrophysiological strategy , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[23]  J R Simon,et al.  Effect of conflicting cues on information processing: the 'Stroop effect' vs. the 'Simon effect'. , 1990, Acta psychologica.

[24]  Xun Liu,et al.  Common and distinct neural substrates of attentional control in an integrated Simon and spatial Stroop task as assessed by event-related fMRI , 2004, NeuroImage.

[25]  J. Ridley.  Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions , 2001 .

[26]  J. Sergeant,et al.  The Stroop revisited: a meta-analysis of interference control in AD/HD. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[27]  Ann-Christine Ehlis,et al.  Altered response control and anterior cingulate function in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder boys , 2004, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[28]  D. Bjorklund,et al.  The Ontogeny of Inhibition Mechanisms: A Renewed Approach to Cognitive Development , 1993 .

[29]  Geert J. M. van Boxtel,et al.  The N2 in go/no-go tasks reflects conflict monitoring not response inhibition , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[30]  Susan R. Homack,et al.  A meta-analysis of the sensitivity and specificity of the Stroop Color and Word Test with children. , 2004, Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists.

[31]  Gereon R Fink,et al.  Neural mechanisms of interference control and time discrimination in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. , 2010, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[32]  G. Logan,et al.  The Development of Selective Inhibitory Control Across the Life Span , 2002, Developmental neuropsychology.

[33]  H. Heinrich,et al.  Differential effects of methylphenidate and atomoxetine on attentional processes in children with ADHD: An event-related potential study using the Attention Network Test , 2012, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.

[34]  Jonathan R. Folstein,et al.  Influence of cognitive control and mismatch on the N2 component of the ERP: a review. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[35]  Chaozhe Zhu,et al.  Alerting deficits in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Event-related fMRI evidence , 2008, Brain Research.

[36]  C. Vaidya,et al.  Neurodevelopmental abnormalities in ADHD. , 2012, Current topics in behavioral neurosciences.

[37]  Conor V. Dolan,et al.  Source (or Part of the following Source): Type Article Title Age-related Change in Executive Function: Developmental Trends and a Latent Variable Analysis Author(s) Age-related Change in Executive Function: Developmental Trends and a Latent Variable Analysis , 2022 .

[38]  Gijsbert Stoet,et al.  Sex differences in the processing of flankers , 2010, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[39]  J. Halperin,et al.  Sustained attention and response inhibition in young children at risk for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[40]  R. Barkley.  Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[41]  Nicholas Wymbs,et al.  Neural correlates of conflict processing , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[42]  J Leon Kenemans,et al.  Source analysis of the N2 in a cued Go/NoGo task. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[43]  J. Kenemans,et al.  Stroop interference and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a review and meta-analysis. , 2007, Neuropsychology.

[44]  M. Spronk,et al.  Response inhibition and attention processing in 5- to 7-year-old children with and without symptoms of ADHD: An ERP study , 2008, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[45]  Sidney J Segalowitz,et al.  Development of Response-Monitoring ERPs in 7- to 25-Year-Olds , 2004, Developmental neuropsychology.

[46]  Peter E Clayson,et al.  Sex differences in error-related performance monitoring , 2011, Neuroreport.

[47]  Philip David Zelazo,et al.  Neural correlates of cognitive control in childhood and adolescence: Disentangling the contributions of age and executive function , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[48]  L. Jonkman,et al.  The development of preparation, conflict monitoring and inhibition from early childhood to young adulthood; a Go/Nogo ERP study , 2006, Brain Research.

[49]  M. Waterman,et al.  A new Stroop-like measure of inhibitory function development: typical developmental trends. , 2003, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[50]  Herbert Roeyers,et al.  Event rate and event-related potentials in ADHD. , 2006, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[51]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .