title: Emotional deficits in adult ADHD patients: an ERP study.
abstract: This study examined general deficits in positive stimuli evaluation in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We investigated the event-related potentials to positive, negative and neutral pictures in 32 adults with ADHD and 32 control subjects. For this study we measured 21 electrodes placed in accordance with the international 10-20 system and calculated the early posterior negativity (EPN), which physiologically is characterized by more negative values for emotional as compared to neutral stimuli. We found significantly reduced EPN values for the ADHD patients compared to the healthy controls, but only in the positive stimuli condition, without any significant differences in the negative stimuli condition. Our data indicate that ADHD patients show less reactivity to positive visual stimuli which might be relevant in the context of described dysfunctions of the motivational-reward system in ADHD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Fuechsleinstr. 15, 97080 Würzburg, Germany. herrmann_m@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schreppel
authors.forename: Stefanie C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Biehl
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heine
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boreatti-Hümmer
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mühlberger
authors.forename: Andreas J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fallgatter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult