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Frontal lobe functioning in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Abstracts from the 19th Annual Meeting
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trolled Oral Word Association (FAS). Statistical analyses indicated between group differences on working memory measures, in particular verbal working memory tasks. No between-group differences were found on visual working memory or delay memory tasks. Correlational analyses indicated few significant relationships between tests of working memory and executive functioning in the A D H D group. It was concluded that children with A D H D have impairment on verbal working memory tasks, but not on executive functioning tasks in general. Thus, partial support was found for Barkley's theory of A D H D .
Espe-Pfeifer, P., Devaraju-Backhaus, S., Mahrou, M. L., Dornheim, L., Proctor-Weber, Z., King, J. A., Jalazo, M., Calabria, M., Selden, J., Sanders, C., & Golden, C. J. Frontal Lobe Functioning in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( A D H D ) perform differently than normal children on neuropsychological tests presumed to assess frontal lobe functions. Participants were 132 children referred for neuropsychological evaluations, which in part included several measures of presumed frontal lobe functions including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Category Test, Trail Making Test Part B, and Stroop Color and Word Test. The participants were predominantly male (75.8%) and right-handed (89.1%). The average age of the children was 8.7 years (SD = 2.97) and average level of education was 3.13 years (SD = 2.67). Ten percent of the children were Hispanic, 26.9% African American and/or Caribbean Black, 56.2% Caucasian, and 6.9% other. The two experimental groups included 70 children with A D H D (including A D H D Combined Type, A D H D Predominantly Inattentive T y p e , A D H D Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, and A D H D Not Otherwise Specified) and 62 children with posttraumatic stress disorder or an adjustment disorder (control group). A correlational analysis yielded a significant relationship (alpha < .02, Bonferonni) with the WCST Percent Conceptual Level Responses, Stroop Color, and Stroop Interference scores. An analysis of variance regarding the three significant variables (WCST Percent Conceptual Level Responses, Stroop Color, and Stroop Interference), corrected for age, yielded a significant difference between children with A D H D and the control group, F(2, 35) = 5.824, p = .007, with a power of 0.838. Upon cross-validation the adjusted R 2 was 0.221. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.
Jalazo, M. J., Sanders, C. E., Espe-Pfeifer, P. B., Bradley, J., Mahrou, M. L., Backhaus, S. D., Dornheim, L., Proctor-Weber, Z., Calabria, M., Selden, J., Pospisil, T., King, J., & Golden, C. J. Evaluating Problem-Solving Efficiency in School-Age Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( A D H D ) to arrive at the correct solutions on a task of concept formation and cognitive flexibility. Nineteen children with a diagnosis of A D H D were administered the full version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The subjects' ages ranged from 6 to 9, with a mean of 7.58 years (SD = 1.02). Fourteen children were Caucasian, three were African American and one was of Hispanic origin. Their results as a group were compared with the normative sample for 6- to 9-year old children (n = 154). Results indicated that, while children with A D H D did not differ from the normative sample in terms of the number of trials needed to complete the first category, they were significantly less able to modify their strategies in accordance with changing task rules in order to be consistently successful over subsequent trials (i.e., difficulties "learn-
693
trolled Oral Word Association (FAS). Statistical analyses indicated between group differences on working memory measures, in particular verbal working memory tasks. No between-group differences were found on visual working memory or delay memory tasks. Correlational analyses indicated few significant relationships between tests of working memory and executive functioning in the A D H D group. It was concluded that children with A D H D have impairment on verbal working memory tasks, but not on executive functioning tasks in general. Thus, partial support was found for Barkley's theory of A D H D .
Espe-Pfeifer, P., Devaraju-Backhaus, S., Mahrou, M. L., Dornheim, L., Proctor-Weber, Z., King, J. A., Jalazo, M., Calabria, M., Selden, J., Sanders, C., & Golden, C. J. Frontal Lobe Functioning in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( A D H D ) perform differently than normal children on neuropsychological tests presumed to assess frontal lobe functions. Participants were 132 children referred for neuropsychological evaluations, which in part included several measures of presumed frontal lobe functions including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Category Test, Trail Making Test Part B, and Stroop Color and Word Test. The participants were predominantly male (75.8%) and right-handed (89.1%). The average age of the children was 8.7 years (SD = 2.97) and average level of education was 3.13 years (SD = 2.67). Ten percent of the children were Hispanic, 26.9% African American and/or Caribbean Black, 56.2% Caucasian, and 6.9% other. The two experimental groups included 70 children with A D H D (including A D H D Combined Type, A D H D Predominantly Inattentive T y p e , A D H D Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, and A D H D Not Otherwise Specified) and 62 children with posttraumatic stress disorder or an adjustment disorder (control group). A correlational analysis yielded a significant relationship (alpha < .02, Bonferonni) with the WCST Percent Conceptual Level Responses, Stroop Color, and Stroop Interference scores. An analysis of variance regarding the three significant variables (WCST Percent Conceptual Level Responses, Stroop Color, and Stroop Interference), corrected for age, yielded a significant difference between children with A D H D and the control group, F(2, 35) = 5.824, p = .007, with a power of 0.838. Upon cross-validation the adjusted R 2 was 0.221. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.
Jalazo, M. J., Sanders, C. E., Espe-Pfeifer, P. B., Bradley, J., Mahrou, M. L., Backhaus, S. D., Dornheim, L., Proctor-Weber, Z., Calabria, M., Selden, J., Pospisil, T., King, J., & Golden, C. J. Evaluating Problem-Solving Efficiency in School-Age Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( A D H D ) to arrive at the correct solutions on a task of concept formation and cognitive flexibility. Nineteen children with a diagnosis of A D H D were administered the full version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The subjects' ages ranged from 6 to 9, with a mean of 7.58 years (SD = 1.02). Fourteen children were Caucasian, three were African American and one was of Hispanic origin. Their results as a group were compared with the normative sample for 6- to 9-year old children (n = 154). Results indicated that, while children with A D H D did not differ from the normative sample in terms of the number of trials needed to complete the first category, they were significantly less able to modify their strategies in accordance with changing task rules in order to be consistently successful over subsequent trials (i.e., difficulties "learn-