Adult Attention Deficit Disorder: Auditory and Motor Cognitive Inhibitions

Early findings on ADHD lead to the conclusion that ADHD was a child's learning disability which either disappeared or was minimized enough to be a non-issue with age. It wasn't until much more recently that research on ADHD and adults had advanced sufficiently to identify the deficiencies as they developed.

An early article by Barkley et al. (ADHD/ODD, 2001) found that while children with ADHD aged 5-12 may be lacking in their ability to properly encode information when compared with their respective peers, these symptoms often disappear with the onset of adolescence. To measure this effect the authors ran a series of tests on 101 teens (aged 12-17) which were diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. For the experiment each of the participating teens were required to meet seven criteria: Parent/Teacher complaints of inattention or poor impulse control and overactivity; exhibit 12 of the 18 signs of ADHD as defined by the DSM-IV; exhibit 4 of the 8 symptoms of ODD; meet all DSM-IV for ADHD in the clinical interview; must not currently be taking psychoactive medicine; must not seek out any form of psychiatric or psychological treatment over the course of the experiment; must not be directly involved in any ongoing legal case, have a prior juvenile record, or be involved in any legal proceeding which may effect their involvement over the course of the experiment.

The control consisted of teens from the same community who's adherence to the aforementioned criteria was sufficiently low to render them as psychologically healthy.

For the experiment the teens were collectively asked to perform eight tasks: Conners Continuous Performance Test (vigilance and Response Inhibition); Digit Span Reversed (verbal working memory); Simo...

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...& Backenroth-Ohsako, G. (2010). Reduced capacity in a dichotic memory test for adult patients with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 13(6), 677-683. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/742987296?accountid=4840

Engelhardt, P. E., Nigg, J. T., Carr, L. A., & Ferreira, F. (2008). Cognitive inhibition and working memory in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117(3), 591-605. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/622119725?accountid=4840

Lampe, K., Konrad, K., Kroener, S., Fast, K., Kunert, H. J., & Herpertz, S. C. (2007). Neuropsychological and behavioural disinhibition in adult ADHD compared to borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences, 37(12), 1717-1729. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/621972537?accountid=4840