Control of Response Inhibition in Children with ADHD on the Continuous Performance Test under Various Intervals

Abstract

The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) performance of 26 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was compared to an age-matched control group. The authors used the Continuous Performance Test-AX (CPT-AX) paradigm. To maintain uncertainty of the stimulus series, the authors implemented 3 different interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between the warning stimulus and the following stimulus. Both ADHD and control subject participants were divided into 3 groups by age (9, 11, and 13 yrs). In the control group, performance changed developmentally and the effect of ISI was different in each age group. The ADHD group made more errors (miss, false alarm) and indicated larger variance of percentages and reaction times of hits than the controls. These results suggest that children with ADHD have difficulty controlling response inhibition toward coping with ISI changes effectively. In conclusion, CPT-AX under various ISI conditions may contribute to evaluate a difficulty of the response control of children with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)