title: Semantic conflicts are resolved differently by adults with and without ADHD.
abstract: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioral disorder characterized by various behavioral and cognitive difficulties. Previous studies indicated that children with ADHD have language difficulties, including difficulties in metaphor understanding but the relation between metaphor processing and specific cognitive functions needs further investigation. In the current study we examined how adults with and without ADHD resolve semantic conflicts between a metaphorical prime and a metaphorical or literal target sentence. Twenty-six adults with ADHD and 24 age-matched control participants underwent a thorough evaluation of neuropsychological skills, as well as assessment of various aspects of attention. Results suggested that people with ADHD were less efficient than controls in resolving conflicts between metaphorical and literal meanings of sentence pairs. In addition they showed deficient sustained attention and executive attention. Moreover, the ability to resolve semantic conflicts was related to semantic fluency in the ADHD group, but to executive attention in the control group. These findings emphasize the various specific difficulties of adults with ADHD and shed light on the different role of attention in the resolution of semantic conflicts among ADHD individuals as compared to controls.
authors.affiliation: School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: doritse@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dorit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Segal
authors.affiliation: School of Education and Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. Electronic address: mashaln@mail.biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Nira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mashal
authors.affiliation: School of Education and School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. Electronic address: lilachsm@tauex.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Lilach
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shalev
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019365:Metaphor; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ADHD; Conflict resolution; Domain general mechanisms; Executive attention; Metaphor comprehension