Abstract
Increased reaction time variability (RTV) is one of the most replicable behavioral correlates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, this may not be specific to ADHD but a more general marker of psychopathology. Here we compare RT variability in individuals with ADHD and those with other childhood internalizing and externalizing conditions both in terms of standard (i.e., the standard deviation of reaction time) and alternative indices that capture low-frequency oscillatory patterns in RT variations over time thought to mark periodic lapses of attention in ADHD. A total of 667 participants (6–12 years old) were classified into non-overlapping diagnostic groups consisting of children with fear disorders (n = 91), distress disorders (n = 56), ADHD (n = 103), oppositional defiant or conduct disorder (ODD/CD; n = 40) and typically developing controls (TDC; n = 377). We used a simple two-choice reaction time task to measure reaction time. The strength of oscillations in RTs across the session was extracted using spectral analyses. Higher RTV was present in ADHD compared to all other disorder groups, effects that were equally strong across all frequency bands. Interestingly, we found that lower RTV to characterize ODD/CD relative to TDC, a finding that was more pronounced at lower frequencies. In general, our data support RTV as a specific marker of ADHD. RT variation across time in ADHD did not show periodicity in a specific frequency band, not supporting that ADHD RTV is the product of spontaneous periodic lapses of attention. Low-frequency oscillations may be particularly useful to differentiate ODD/CD from TDC.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the children and families for their participation, which made this research possible; the other members of the high-risk cohort research team (Dr. Ana Carina Tamanaha, Dr. Pedro Gomes Alvarenga, Dr. Ana Soledade Graeff-Martins, Dra. Tais Silveira Moriyama, Dr. Eurípedes Constantino Miguel, Dr. Gisele Gus Manfro, Dr. Rodrigo Affonseca-Bressan and Dr. Helena Brentani); the collaborators for the neuropsychological evaluation (Bruno Sini Scarpato, Sandra Lie Ribeiro do Valle and Carolina Araújo); Dr. Robert Goodman for his research support regarding the DAWBA instrument procedures and Dr. Bacy Fleitlich-Bilyk for her clinical supervision.
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Giovanni Abrahão Salum receives support from a FAPERGS/CAPES postdoctoral fellowship. João Ricardo Sato has no conflicts of interest to declare. Arthur Gus Manfro declares no possible conflicts of interest. Ary Gadelha receives continuing medical education support from Astra Zeneca, Eli-Lilly and Janssen-Cilag. Pedro Pan receives research support from CNPq and CAPES and continuing medical education support from Astra Zeneca, Eli-Lilly and Janssen-Cilag. Maria Conceição do Rosário receives research support from Brazilian government institutions (CNPq) and has worked in the last 5 years as a speaker for Novartis and Shire. Guilherme Vanoni Polanczyk has served as a speaker or consultant to Eli-Lilly, Novartis and Shire Pharmaceuticals, developed educational material for Janssen-Cilag and received unrestricted research support from Novartis and from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil). Francisco Xavier Castellanos declares no potential conflicts of interest. Edmund Sonuga-Barke is a member of advisory boards to Shire, Flynn Pharma, UCB Pharma, AstraZeneca. He has served as speaker and consultant for Shire and UCB Pharma. ESB receives current/recent research support from Janssen-Cilag, Shire, Qbtech and Flynn Pharma. ESB received conference support from Shire. Luis Augusto Rohde was on the speakers’ bureau and/or acted as consultant for Eli-Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis and Shire in the last 3 years. The ADHD and Juvenile Bipolar Disorder Outpatient Programs chaired by him received unrestricted educational and research support from the following pharmaceutical companies in the last 3 years: Eli-Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis and Shire. He also receives research support from Brazilian government institutions (CNPq, FAPERGS, HCPA and CAPES), authorship royalties from Oxford Press and ArtMed and received travel awards for taking part of 2014 APA meeting from Shire.
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The authors obtained written informed consent from parents of all participants and verbal assent from all children involved in the study.
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Salum, G.A., Sato, J.R., Manfro, A.G. et al. Reaction time variability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: is increased reaction time variability specific to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Testing predictions from the default-mode interference hypothesis. ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord 11, 47–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0257-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0257-x