Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Neurology, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
BMJ Open. 2019 Apr 25;9(4):e027651. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027651.
The goal of this study is to get a better understanding of the fundamentals of perceptual timing deficits, that is, difficulties with estimating durations of explicitly attended temporal intervals, in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whereas these deficits were repeatedly demonstrated in laboratory studies using computer-based timing tasks, we will additionally implement a more practical task reflecting real-life activity. In doing so, the research questions of the planned study follow a hierarchically structured path 'from lab to life': Are the timing abilities of children with ADHD really disturbed both in the range of milliseconds and in the range of seconds? What causes these deficits? Do children with ADHD rather display a global perceptual timing deficit, or do different 'timing types' exist? Are timing deficits present during real-life activities as well, and are they based on the same mechanisms as in computerised tasks?
A quasi-experimental study with two groups of male children aged 8-12 years (ADHD; controls) and with a cross-sectional design will be used to address our research questions. Statistical analyses of the dependent variables will comprise (repeated) measures analyses of variance, stepwise multiple regression analyses and latent class models. With an estimated dropout rate of 25%, power analysis indicated a sample size of 140 subjects (70 ADHD, 70 controls) to detect medium effect sizes.
Ethics approval was obtained from the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Rostock. Results will be disseminated to researcher, clinician and patient communities in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific conferences, at a meeting of the local ADHD competence network and on our web page which will summarise the study results in an easily comprehensible manner.
DRKS00015760.
本研究旨在深入了解感知时距缺陷的基本原理，即注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）儿童在明确注意到的时间间隔的持续时间估计方面存在困难。虽然这些缺陷在使用计算机时距任务的实验室研究中已反复得到证实，但我们还将实施一项更切合实际的任务，以反映现实生活中的活动。在这样做的过程中，计划研究的研究问题遵循了从实验室到生活的层次结构路径：ADHD 儿童的计时能力是否真的在毫秒和秒的范围内都受到干扰？是什么导致了这些缺陷？ADHD 儿童是否表现出普遍的感知时距缺陷，还是存在不同的“时距类型”？在现实生活活动中也存在计时缺陷吗？它们是否基于与计算机任务相同的机制？
本研究采用准实验设计，有两组 8-12 岁的男性儿童（ADHD；对照组），设计为横断面设计，以解决我们的研究问题。对因变量的统计分析将包括（重复）测量方差分析、逐步多元回归分析和潜在类别模型。根据预计的 25%的辍学率，功效分析表明，需要 140 名受试者（70 名 ADHD，70 名对照组）的样本量来检测中等效应量。
罗托尔德克大学医学系伦理委员会已批准该研究。研究结果将在同行评议期刊和科学会议上，在当地 ADHD 能力网络的会议上，以及在我们的网页上传播，该网页将以易于理解的方式总结研究结果。
DRKS00015760。
