Liu Fulin, Chi Xia, Yu Dongchuan
Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
Department of Child Health Care, Women's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2024 May 8;15:1326341. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1326341. eCollection 2024.
Inhibition control, as the core component of executive function, might play a crucial role in the understanding of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific learning disorders (SLD). Inhibition control deficits have been observed in children with ADHD or SLD. This study sought to test in a multi-modal fashion (i.e., behavior and plus brain imaging) whether inhibition control abilities would be further deteriorated in the ADHD children due to the comorbidity of SLD.
A total number of 90 children (aged 6-12 years) were recruited, including 30 ADHD, 30 ADHD+SLD (children with the comorbidity of ADHD and SLD), and 30 typically developing (TD) children. For each participant, a 44-channel functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) equipment was first adopted to capture behavioral and cortical hemodynamic responses during a two-choice Oddball task (a relatively new inhibition control paradigm). Then, 50 metrics were extracted, including 6 behavioral metrics (i.e., OddballACC, baselineACC, totalACC, OddballRT, baselineRT, and totalRT) and 44 beta values in 44 channels based on general linear model. Finally, differences in those 50 metrics among the TD, ADHD, and ADHD+SLD children were analyzed.
Findings showed that: (1) OddballACC (i.e., the response accuracy in deviant stimuli) is the most sensitive metric in identifying the differences between the ADHD and ADHD+SLD children; and (2) The ADHD+SLD children exhibited decreased behavioral response accuracy and brain activation level in some channels (e.g., channel CH35) than both the ADHD and TD children.
Findings seem to support that inhibition control abilities would be further decreased in the ADHD children due to the comorbidity of SLD.
抑制控制作为执行功能的核心组成部分，可能在理解注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）和特定学习障碍（SLD）中发挥关键作用。在患有ADHD或SLD的儿童中已观察到抑制控制缺陷。本研究旨在以多模态方式（即行为和脑成像）测试由于SLD的共病，ADHD儿童的抑制控制能力是否会进一步恶化。
共招募了90名儿童（6至12岁），包括30名ADHD儿童、30名ADHD + SLD儿童（患有ADHD和SLD共病的儿童）和30名发育正常（TD）的儿童。对于每个参与者，首先采用44通道功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）设备在二选一Oddball任务（一种相对较新的抑制控制范式）期间捕捉行为和皮层血流动力学反应。然后，基于一般线性模型提取50个指标，包括6个行为指标（即OddballACC、基线ACC、总ACC、OddballRT、基线RT和总RT）以及44个通道中的44个β值。最后，分析TD、ADHD和ADHD + SLD儿童在这50个指标上的差异。
研究结果表明：（1）OddballACC（即异常刺激中的反应准确性）是识别ADHD和ADHD + SLD儿童之间差异最敏感的指标；（2）ADHD + SLD儿童在某些通道（例如通道CH35）中的行为反应准确性和脑激活水平比ADHD儿童和TD儿童都低。
研究结果似乎支持由于SLD的共病，ADHD儿童的抑制控制能力会进一步下降。
