title: Is the impairment in temporal allocation of visual attention in children with ADHD related to a developmental delay or a structural cognitive deficit?
abstract: We investigated the temporal allocation of visual attention in 11-year-old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by comparing their attentional blink (AB) parameters (duration, amplitude and minimum performance) with those observed in three groups of healthy control participants (8-year-olds, 11-year-olds and adults). The AB is a marker of impaired ability to detect a second target following the identification of a first target when both appear randomly within a rapid sequence of distractor items. Our results showed developmental effects; with age, the AB duration decreased and the AB minimum moved to shorter lag times. Importantly, 11-year old children with ADHD presented much the same similar AB patterns (in terms of duration and minimum position) as the healthy 8-year-old controls. Our results support the hypothesis whereby impaired allocation of temporal selective attention in children with ADHD is due to a developmental delay and not a specific cognitive deficit.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS UMR-5105, Grenoble, France; Université de Savoie, BP 1104, 73011 Chambéry Cedex, France. Electronic address: sophie.donnadieu@univ-savoie.fr.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Donnadieu
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS UMR-5105, Grenoble, France; Université de Savoie, BP 1104, 73011 Chambéry Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lallier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS UMR-5105, Grenoble, France; Université Pierre Mendès France, BP 47, 38040 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marendaz
authors.affiliation: CHU de Grenoble, Département de Psychiatrie, 38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laurent
keywords: ADHD; Attentional blink; Development; Inhibitory process; Selective visual attention