BACKGROUND: The selective attention of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) to briefly exposed delay-related cues was examined in two experiments using a dot-probe conditioning paradigm. METHOD: Colour cues were paired with negatively (i.e., imposition of delay) and positively valenced cues (i.e., escape from or avoidance of delay) during a conditioning phase. These cues were presented alongside neutral cues in a subsequent dot-probe detection phase. RESULTS: In experiment 1 teacher-identified children with AD/HD (N = 12), but not controls (N = 12), displayed an attentional bias towards both positively and negatively valenced cues. In experiment 2 children with a diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder (N = 15), but not controls (N = 15), displayed a bias towards delay-related cues. However, this effect was largely carried by the response to positively valenced cues. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the dot-probe conditioning paradigm as a useful test of motivational influence on attention. They provide the first evidence of qualitative differences in the attentional style of children with AD/HD and give further support to those theories that highlight the motivational significance of delay in AD/HD.
BACKGROUND: The selective attention of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) to briefly exposed delay-related cues was examined in two experiments using a dot-probe conditioning paradigm. METHOD: Colour cues were paired with negatively (i.e., imposition of delay) and positively valenced cues (i.e., escape from or avoidance of delay) during a conditioning phase. These cues were presented alongside neutral cues in a subsequent dot-probe detection phase. RESULTS: In experiment 1 teacher-identified children with AD/HD (N = 12), but not controls (N = 12), displayed an attentional bias towards both positively and negatively valenced cues. In experiment 2 children with a diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder (N = 15), but not controls (N = 15), displayed a bias towards delay-related cues. However, this effect was largely carried by the response to positively valenced cues. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the dot-probe conditioning paradigm as a useful test of motivational influence on attention. They provide the first evidence of qualitative differences in the attentional style of children with AD/HD and give further support to those theories that highlight the motivational significance of delay in AD/HD.
Authors: Kerstin J Plessen; Ravi Bansal; Hongtu Zhu; Ronald Whiteman; Jose Amat; Georgette A Quackenbush; Laura Martin; Kathleen Durkin; Clancy Blair; Jason Royal; Kenneth Hugdahl; Bradley S Peterson Journal: Arch Gen Psychiatry Date: 2006-07
Authors: Amy Krain Roy; Roma A Vasa; Maggie Bruck; Karin Mogg; Brendan P Bradley; Michael Sweeney; R Lindsey Bergman; Erin B McClure-Tone; Daniel S Pine Journal: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2008-10 Impact factor: 8.829
Authors: Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke; Jan R Wiersema; Jacob J van der Meere; Herbert Roeyers Journal: Neuropsychol Rev Date: 2009-09-15 Impact factor: 7.444
Authors: Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke; Robert Kumsta; Wolff Schlotz; Jessica Lasky-Su; Rafaela Marco; Ana Miranda; Fernando Mulas; Robert D Oades; Tobias Banaschewski; Ueli Mueller; Penny Andreou; Hanna Christiansen; Isabel Gabriels; Henrik Uebel; Jonna Kuntsi; Barbara Franke; Jan Buitelaar; Richard Ebstein; Michael Gill; Richard Anney; Herbert Roeyers; Aribert Rothenberger; Joseph Sergeant; Hans Christoph Steinhausen; Philip Asherson; Stephen V Faraone Journal: Biol Psychiatry Date: 2011-04-17 Impact factor: 13.382