Hemispheric functioning in children with subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
OBJECTIVE
The authors investigated line bisection performance in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) subtypes. Previous research with neurotypical children found a rightward bias with right-hand use and a leftward bias with left-hand use; however, research with AD/HD participants has failed to similarly measure the effects of hand use, which was the focus of this study.


METHODS
Line bisection was used to measure differences in right hemisphere functioning in children (7 to 12 years) with AD/HD-I and AD/HD-C.


RESULTS
Initial AD/HD group findings (without subtype differentiation) replicated previous research. However, further subtype analyses showed that the ADHD-I and ADHD-C groups perform significantly differently. Specifically, the ADHD-I group showed a leftward bias, irrespective of hand use, and the ADHD-C group showed a rightward bias, irrespective of hand use.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that the subtypes represent two distinct disorders and that, unlike ADHD-C, ADHD-I may not be the result of right hemisphere dysfunction.
Rolfe
Mei Hsin Suzanne
MH
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. s.rolfe@auckland.ac.nz
Hausmann
Markus
M
Waldie
Karen E
KE
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence