Barnett R, Maruff P, Vance A, Luk E S, Costin J, Wood C, Pantelis C
Maroondah Hospital Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Victoria, Australia.
Psychol Med. 2001 Aug;31(6):1107-15. doi: 10.1017/s0033291701004172.
This study sought to examine the factors associated with spatial working memory and the use of strategies to impairments in spatial working memory in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The developmental trajectories for spatial working memory in medicated and medication naïve children with ADHD were investigated. In addition, the effect of psychostimulant medication on deficits in spatial working memory was examined.
A cross-sectional study compared performance between 21 psychostimulant medicated children with ADHD, 27 medication naïve children with ADHD and 26 matched control subjects on computerized tests of spatial memory and spatial working memory.
Compared with the controls, performance in medication naïve children with ADHD was significantly worse on the spatial working memory task. There was no difference in performance between the medicated children with ADHD and the control subjects on this same task, despite the ongoing symptoms of ADHD in the former group. The pattern of normal and abnormal performance in the ADHD groups was age-independent.
Deficits in executive functions related to spatial working memory do occur in children with ADHD, although the magnitude of these deficits is not related to the child's age or the level of ADHD symptoms. These deficits were not present in the current sample of children who were receiving psychostimulant medication.
本研究旨在探讨与空间工作记忆相关的因素，以及注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）儿童空间工作记忆受损时策略的使用情况。研究了接受药物治疗和未接受药物治疗的ADHD儿童空间工作记忆的发展轨迹。此外，还研究了精神兴奋剂药物对空间工作记忆缺陷的影响。
一项横断面研究比较了21名接受精神兴奋剂药物治疗的ADHD儿童、27名未接受药物治疗的ADHD儿童和26名匹配的对照受试者在空间记忆和空间工作记忆计算机测试中的表现。
与对照组相比，未接受药物治疗的ADHD儿童在空间工作记忆任务上的表现明显更差。尽管接受药物治疗的ADHD儿童仍有ADHD症状，但他们在同一任务上的表现与对照受试者没有差异。ADHD组正常和异常表现的模式与年龄无关。
ADHD儿童确实存在与空间工作记忆相关的执行功能缺陷，尽管这些缺陷的严重程度与儿童年龄或ADHD症状水平无关。在目前接受精神兴奋剂药物治疗的儿童样本中，这些缺陷并不存在。
