title: Aberrant executive attention in unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aberrant attentional processes in individuals with mood disorders - bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) - have been well documented. This study examined whether unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders would exhibit poor alerting, orienting, and executive attention relative to age-matched controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of youth (8-17 years old) having one parent with either BD or MDD (Mood-Risk, n=29) and youth having healthy parents (HC, n=27) completed the Attention Network Test-Short version (ANT-S), which assesses alerting, orienting, and executive attention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative to HCs, the Mood-Risk group had significantly slower reaction times on an index of executive attention, but no differences on indices of alerting or orienting. There were no differences between the two at-risk groups (i.e., youth with BD parent vs. youth with MDD parent) on any ANT-S measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study is limited by its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and failure to control for familial environmental factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings extend previous results indicating that altered executive attention may represent an endophenotype for mood disorders in at-risk youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Belleau
authors.forename: Mary L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Birmaher
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Axelson
authors.forename: Cecile D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Ladouceur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D058068:Endophenotypes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time