Objective: This study addresses if deficits in cognitive, attention, and inhibitory control performance in adults with ADHD are better explained by the disorder itself or by comorbid conditions. Method Adult patients with ADHD ("n" = 352) and controls ("n" = 94) were evaluated in the ADHD program of a tertiary hospital. The…

Cognitive problems are common in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 and they can often complicate treatment. The current literature review examines cognitive functioning in neurofibromatosis type 1, with a specific focus on executive functioning. This includes exploration of how deficits in executive functioning are expressed in children with…

Objective: Current diagnostic criteria specify that ADHD involves difficulties with inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. Researchers using factor analysis have consistently found support for an inattention factor in both children and adults. Findings have been mixed regarding whether hyperactivity and impulsivity reflect one or two…

Objective: To examine whether participants with ADHD showed a deficit in Stroop/reverse-Stroop interference by comparing them to non-ADHD participants. Method: A group with ADHD, primarily inattentive type (n = 15), and a paired non-ADHD group (n = 15) completed the group version of the Stroop/reverse-Stroop test. Results: Asymmetric interference…

Objective: ADHD is often associated with difficulties in planning and time management. In this study, the authors examined the hypothesis that these functional problems in ADHD reflect systematic biases in temporal orientation. Method: To test this hypothesis, adults with ADHD (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 60) completed the Swedish version of…

Objective: To examine written expression and the executive function skills (working memory, verbal fluency, and planning and organization) involved in written expression in college-aged students with ADHD. Method: Two groups of undergraduate students, aged 19 to 28 years, (ADHD, n = 31; control, n = 27) are evaluated on selected measures of…

Background: The present study investigated the impact of coexisting anxiety disorder in children with ADHD on their ability to regulate behavior. Method: Parent reports on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) in a comorbid group of children with ADHD and anxiety (n = 11) were compared to BRIEF reports in a group of children…

Objective: Etiological models of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increasingly support the role of a motivational dysfunction pathway, particularly for hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. Overactive behavioral approach tendencies are implicated among these motivational accounts. However, other externalizing disorder symptoms, such as…

Objective: Exposure to heavy maternal cigarette smoking in pregnancy and severe maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy appear to be important risk factors for the development of ADHD. This study aimed to determine whether these perinatal risk factors were associated with neuropsychological deficits commonly seen in ADHD. Method: We examined…

Objective: To bridge theory of response inhibition and learning in children with ADHD. Method: Thirty ADHD and 30 non-ADHD children (ages 9-12) were compared under concurrent variable interval (VI-15 sec., VI-30 sec. and VI- 45 sec.) reinforcement schedules that required the child to switch between the three schedules under conditions of…

Objective: To examine whether cognitive enhancement can be delivered through play to preschoolers with ADHD and whether it would affect severity of ADHD symptoms. Method: Twenty-nine 4- and 5-year-old children and their parents participated in separate group sessions (3-5 children/group). Child groups were introduced games designed to enhance…

Objective: In this study, the authors investigated whether ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) behaviors share associations with problems in cognitive functioning and/or family risk factors in adolescence. This was done by examining independent as well as specific associations of cognitive functioning and family risk factors with ADHD and…

Objective: To measure test-retest reliability of the Stop-Signal Task (SST) and the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT) in children with ADHD. Methods: 12 children with ADHD (age 11.46 plus or minus 1.66) participated in the study. Primary outcome measures were stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) for the SST and CPT's commission errors (%FP).…

In his lectures published in 1902, George Still described 43 children in his clinical practice who had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation. George Still certainly did not use the current terminology for this disorder, but many historians of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have inferred that the children he…

Objective: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with poor inhibition of prepotent responses and deficits in distractor inhibition, but relatively few studies have addressed inhibitory control of proactive interference (PI) in individuals with ADHD. Thus, the goal of the present study was to evaluate resistance to spatial…