Prospective and Retrospective Verbal Time Estimation in Children with ADHD

Marco Walg; Helmut Prior

doi:10.5709/acp-0330-y

Feedback-Based Learning of Timing in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617721000072 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Astrid Prochnow ◽

Annet Bluschke ◽

Barbara Novotna ◽

Maja von der Hagen ◽

Christian Beste

Keyword(s):

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Attention Deficit ◽

Dopaminergic System ◽

Time Estimation ◽

Neurofibromatosis Type ◽

Children With Adhd ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Feedback Learning ◽

Patient Groups

Abstract Objective: Patients with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) frequently display symptoms resembling those of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Importantly, these disorders are characterised by distinct changes in the dopaminergic system, which plays an important role in timing performance and feedback-based adjustments in timing performance. In a transdiagnostic approach, we examine how far NF1 and ADHD show distinct or comparable profiles of timing performance and feedback-based adjustments in timing. Method: We examined time estimation and learning processes in healthy control children (HC), children with ADHD with predominantly inattentive symptoms and those with NF1 using a feedback-based time estimation paradigm. Results: Healthy controls consistently responded closer to the correct time window than both patient groups, were less variable in their reaction times and displayed intact learning-based adjustments across time. The patient groups did not differ from each other regarding the number of in-time responses. In ADHD patients, the performance was rather unstable across time. No performance changes could be observed in patients with NF1 across the entire task. Conclusions: Children with ADHD and NF1 differ in feedback learning-based adjustments of time estimation processes. ADHD is characterised by behavioural fluctuations during the learning process. These are likely to be associated with inefficiencies in the dopaminergic system. NF1 is characterised by impairments of feedback learning which could be due to various neurotransmitter alterations occurring in addition to deficits in dopamine synthesis. Results show that despite the strong overlap in clinical phenotype and neuropsychological deficits between NF1 and ADHD, the underlying cognitive mechanisms are different.

Download Full-text

Corpus callosum may be similar in children with ADHD and siblings of children with ADHD

Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology ◽

10.1017/s0012162200000037 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 42 (01) ◽

pp. 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

S Overmeyer ◽

A Simmons ◽

J Santosh ◽

C Andrew ◽

S C R Williams ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Corpus Callosum ◽

Children With Adhd

Download Full-text

Physical Fitness and Resting EEG in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000131 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 26-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ching-Wen Huang ◽

Chung-Ju Huang ◽

Chiao-Ling Hung ◽

Chia-Hao Shih ◽

Tsung-Min Hung

Keyword(s):

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Physical Fitness ◽

Attention Deficit ◽

Resting State ◽

Self Control ◽

Children With Adhd ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Higher Power ◽

Eyes Open ◽

The Relationship

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by a deviant pattern of brain oscillations during resting state, particularly elevated theta power and increased theta/alpha and theta/beta ratios that are related to cognitive functioning. Physical fitness has been found beneficial to cognitive performance in a wide age population. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness and resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations in children with ADHD. EEG was recorded during eyes-open resting for 28 children (23 boys and 5 girls, 8.66 ± 1.10 years) with ADHD, and a battery of physical fitness assessments including flexibility, muscular endurance, power, and agility tests were administered. The results indicated that ADHD children with higher power fitness exhibited a smaller theta/alpha ratio than those with lower power fitness. These findings suggest that power fitness may be associated with improved attentional self-control in children with ADHD.

Download Full-text

Temporal Prediction Errors Affect Short-Term Memory Scanning Response Time

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000339 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 63 (6) ◽

pp. 333-342

Author(s):

Roberto Limongi ◽

Angélica M. Silva

Keyword(s):

Response Time ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Estimation Error ◽

Predictive Coding ◽

Time Estimation ◽

Prediction Errors ◽

Memory Scanning ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Temporal Prediction

Abstract. The Sternberg short-term memory scanning task has been used to unveil cognitive operations involved in time perception. Participants produce time intervals during the task, and the researcher explores how task performance affects interval production – where time estimation error is the dependent variable of interest. The perspective of predictive behavior regards time estimation error as a temporal prediction error (PE), an independent variable that controls cognition, behavior, and learning. Based on this perspective, we investigated whether temporal PEs affect short-term memory scanning. Participants performed temporal predictions while they maintained information in memory. Model inference revealed that PEs affected memory scanning response time independently of the memory-set size effect. We discuss the results within the context of formal and mechanistic models of short-term memory scanning and predictive coding, a Bayes-based theory of brain function. We state the hypothesis that our finding could be associated with weak frontostriatal connections and weak striatal activity.

Download Full-text