title: The impact of financial reward contingencies on cognitive function profiles in adult ADHD.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although it is well established that cognitive performance in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is affected by reward and that key deficits associated with the disorder may thereby be attenuated or even compensated, this phenomenon in adults with ADHD has thus far not been addressed. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the motivating effect of financial reward on task performance in adults with ADHD by focusing on the domains of executive functioning, attention, time perception, and delay aversion.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined male and female adults aged 18-40 years with ADHD (n = 38) along with a matched control group (n = 40) using six well-established experimental paradigms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Impaired performance in the ADHD group was observed for stop-signal omission errors, n-back accuracy, reaction time variability in the continuous performance task, and time reproduction accuracy, and reward normalized time reproduction accuracy. Furthermore, when rewarded, subjects with ADHD exhibited longer reaction times and fewer false positives in the continuous performance task, which suggests the use of strategies to prevent impulsivity errors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, our results support the existence of both cognitive and motivational mechanisms for the disorder, which is in line with current models of ADHD. Furthermore, our data suggest cognitive strategies of "stopping and thinking" as a possible underlying mechanism for task improvement that seems to be mediated by reward, which highlights the importance of the interaction between motivation and cognition in adult ADHD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany. ivo.marx@med.uni-rostock.de
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Höpcke
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wandschneider
authors.forename: Sabine C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Herpertz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012201:Reward; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult