Neuropsychological and neurophysiological indices of auditory processing impairment in children with multiple complex developmental disorder.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether children with borderline disorder (also referred to as multiple complex developmental disorder) (BD/MCDD) and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate evidence of abnormal attention and/or auditory processing impairments as indexed by both behavioral and physiological measures.


METHODS
Three groups of children were compared in two different experiments on behavioral rating scales (Conners Parent Rating Scale and Child Behavior Checklist), behavioral accuracy to auditory and visual target detection tasks, selected neuropsychological tests, and brain physiology (event-related potentials) collected during auditory and visual target detection tasks.


RESULTS
The results demonstrate that children with BD/MCDD differ from children with ADHD in the (1) prevalence of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, (2) neuropsychological deficits related to auditory processing, and (3) event-related potential brain physiology associated with auditory cognitive target attention tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
Some of the pervasive pathology described in children with BD/MCDD may be due to biological vulnerabilities, particularly problems with auditory processing. Auditory processing impairments in such children deserves special attention with respect to both understanding their behavioral symptoms and developing a comprehensive treatment plan.
Lincoln
A J
AJ
Autism Laboratory of Children's Hospital, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Bloom
D
D
Katz
M
M
Boksenbaum
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006801:Humans; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*