title: Gently restless: association of ADHD-like traits with response inhibition and interference control.
abstract: Impairment of inhibition-related functions is one of the most pronounced cognitive deficits found in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Compelling evidence from studies of unaffected relatives of patients with ADHD and of ADHD-like traits in healthy subjects suggest the continuous distribution of ADHD symptoms in the population. A more subtle inhibitory deficit can also be found in healthy relatives of patients and in subjects with high ADHD-like traits. Here, we examined the relationship between inhibitory performance and ADHD-like traits, for the first time, in a large sample of healthy adults by applying multiple, widely used tests of inhibition-related functions. ADHD-like traits, in general, were independently predicted by Stroop interference score and, at trend level, by go/no-go commission error rate while controlling for socio-demographic factors, verbal intelligence and neuroticism. Additionally, higher inattentive traits were related to worse Stroop performance at trend level, and higher hyperactive/impulsive traits were significantly associated with more go/no-go commission errors. ADHD-like traits were strongly related to neuroticism. The study shows that individual differences in ADHD-like traits are related to variance in fundamental inhibition-related functions over and above effects of negative affect regulation, but the relationships tend to be small. The results suggest the quasi-dimensionality of ADHD and raise further questions about the relationship between genetic factors and the deficit of inhibition-related functions in the ADHD spectrum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111, Bonn, Germany.|Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Bertalan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Polner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Désirée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aichert
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Macare
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111, Bonn, Germany. ulrich.ettinger@uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ettinger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012146:Rest / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ADHD; Continuum; Inhibition; Interference control; Neuroticism