An investigation of visuospatial memory impairment in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined type.
BACKGROUND
Memory impairment is not considered a core cognitive feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT), although it is associated with impairments in attentional and executive functions. This study investigates visuospatial memory impairment, in particular encoding and retrieval aspects, in children with ADHD-CT who are stimulant-medication naive and medicated with stimulant medication.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study of visuospatial memory in 6- to 12-year-old children with stimulant-medication-naive ADHD-CT (n = 62) and medicated ADHD-CT (n = 58) compared to an age- and gender-matched healthy control group (n = 39) was completed.


RESULTS
Both medication-naive and medicated ADHD-CT groups demonstrated subtle yet significant impairment in visuospatial memory. The memory impairment was delay-independent, which, along with other factors, suggest dysfunction of the encoding rather than retrieval phase of visuospatial memory.


CONCLUSIONS
Careful study of large ADHD-CT samples does detect deficits in a visuospatial memory task, but these reflect attentional deficits rather than being specifically due to dysfunction of the medial temporal lobe explicit memory system. Children with ADHD-CT may benefit from cognitive and behavioural strategies focused on improving encoding of relevant information rather than retrieval strategies.
Barnett
R
R
Cogstate Ltd, Australia.
Maruff
P
P
Vance
A
A
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*