Buyck Inez, Wiersema Jan R
Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University.
Neuropsychology. 2015 May;29(3):433-44. doi: 10.1037/neu0000148. Epub 2014 Oct 20.
This study aimed to provide more insight into the functional significance of electroencephalographic (EEG) deviances in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by evaluating quantitative EEG during performance on a task with a low activation level and a task tapping top-down executive control.
Behavioral performance and EEG activity were compared between 24 adults with ADHD and 20 typically developing adults during a simple slow-paced 2-choice reaction time (2-CRT) task and a moderately paced flanker task.
During the slow 2-CRT task, adults with ADHD responded slower, more variably, and tended to make more errors of commission. Although being slower, adults with ADHD showed equally large congruency effects during flanker task performance, indicating intact interference inhibition. In the slow 2-CRT task, (midline) theta and beta power were higher in the ADHD group than in the control group, whereas no significant EEG group differences were observed in the flanker task. A moderate positive correlation between theta power and errors of commission was found in the 2-CRT task for adults with ADHD.
Adults with ADHD performed worse on a task inducing a low activation level but showed intact interference inhibition. The EEG findings are in accord with this, showing an abnormal EEG pattern in ADHD only when a low activation level was induced, not when top-down executive control load was high. Time-on-task effects could not explain the group deviances. The findings indicate that EEG deviances in ADHD are task-dependent and may be related to a suboptimal energetic state, rather than impaired top-down executive control.
本研究旨在通过评估在低激活水平任务和自上而下执行控制任务中的定量脑电图，更深入地了解注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）中脑电图异常的功能意义。
比较了24名患有ADHD的成年人和20名发育正常的成年人在简单慢节奏二选一反应时（2-CRT）任务和中等节奏侧翼任务中的行为表现和脑电图活动。
在慢节奏2-CRT任务中，患有ADHD的成年人反应更慢、变异性更大，且倾向于犯更多的主动错误。尽管速度较慢，但患有ADHD的成年人在侧翼任务表现中显示出同样大的一致性效应，表明干扰抑制功能完好。在慢节奏2-CRT任务中，ADHD组的（中线）θ波和β波功率高于对照组，而在侧翼任务中未观察到显著的脑电图组间差异。在患有ADHD的成年人的2-CRT任务中，发现θ波功率与主动错误之间存在中等程度的正相关。
患有ADHD的成年人在诱导低激活水平的任务中表现较差，但干扰抑制功能完好。脑电图结果与此一致，表明仅在诱导低激活水平时ADHD患者脑电图模式异常，而在自上而下执行控制负荷高时则不然。任务时间效应无法解释组间差异。研究结果表明，ADHD中的脑电图异常与任务相关，可能与能量状态欠佳有关，而非自上而下的执行控制受损。
