title: Cognitive control in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
abstract: The objective of the present study was to investigate the ability of adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to direct their attention and exert cognitive control in a forced instruction dichotic listening (DL) task. The performance of 29 adults with ADHD was compared with 58 matched controls from the Bergen Dichotic Listening Database (N>1500). Participants in the Bergen DL task listen to and report from conflicting consonant-vowel combinations (two different syllables presented simultaneously, one to each ear). They are asked to report the syllable they hear (non-forced condition), or to focus and report either the right- or left-ear syllable (forced-right and forced-left condition). This procedure is presumed to tap distinct cognitive processes: perception (non-forced condition), orienting of attention (forced-right condition), and cognitive control (forced-left condition). Adults with ADHD did not show significant impairment in the conditions tapping perception and attention orientation, but were significantly impaired in their ability to report the left-ear syllable during the forced-left instruction condition, whereas the control group showed the expected left-ear advantage in this condition. This supports the hypothesis of a deficit in cognitive control in the ADHD group, presumably mediated by a deficit in a prefrontal neuronal circuitry. Our results may have implications for psychosocial adjustment for persons with ADHD in educational and work environments.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. margaretha.dramsdalh@helse-bergen.no
authors.forename: Margaretha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dramsdahl
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Westerhausen
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haavik
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hugdahl
authors.forename: Kerstin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Plessen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult