title: The joint effect of bilingualism and ADHD on executive functions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research.
authors.affiliation: University of Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Billy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mor
authors.affiliation: University of Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Sarin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yitzhaki-Amsalem
authors.affiliation: University of Haifa, Israel aprior@edu.haifa.ac.il.
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prior
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007557:Israel; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: adult ADHD; cognitive control; executive function; language