Regulation of cognitive resources during an n-back task in youth-onset psychosis and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The goals of the current study were to use behavioral and pupillary measures to examine working memory on a spatial n-back task in 8-20-year-olds with youth-onset psychosis or ADHD (Combined subtype) and healthy controls to determine the contribution of different attentional factors to spatial working memory impairments, and to examine if age-related changes in performance differed across groups. Although both clinical groups had lower perceptual sensitivity on both 0- and 1-back, there was no evidence of an impairment in spatial working memory or differential order effects on the 0-back. Instead, results suggest that both clinical groups had difficulty encoding the stimuli. They also appeared to have difficulty maintaining attention and/or readiness to respond, and, to a lesser extent, recruiting resources on a trial-to-trial basis. It is likely that these attentional problems prevented the clinical groups from encoding the stimuli effectively and contributed to their general performance deficits.
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. karat004@umn.edu
Canan
C
Karatekin
Christopher
C
Bingham
Tonya
T
White
D000367:Age Factors; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents