Devor Tali, Einziger Tzlil, Ben-Shachar Mattan S, Klein Christoph, Auerbach Judith G, Berger Andrea
Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jan;62(1):e14764. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14764.
Cognitive control deficits and increased intra-subject variability have been well established as core characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and there is a growing interest in their expression at the neural level. We aimed to study neural variability in ADHD, as reflected in theta inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) during error processing, a process that involves cognitive control. We examined both traditional event-related potential (ERP) measures of error processing (i.e., error-related negativity [ERN] and error-positivity [Pe]) and theta ITC within a prospective longitudinal study of children at familial risk for ADHD. The participants were 63 male adolescents who were followed since birth. At the age of 17 years old, they performed the stop-signal task (SST) while an electroencephalogram (EEG) recording was continuously carried out. The EEG data from the trials in which the subjects failed to inhibit their response were used to calculate three different neurophysiological measures (i.e., ERN, Pe, and theta ITC). Consistent with our hypotheses, theta ITC during error processing predicted ADHD symptomatology above and beyond the traditional ERP measures. Moreover, we found that ADHD symptoms throughout childhood were uniquely associated with theta ITC, beyond ADHD symptomatology during adolescence. Overall, our findings strengthen the view of increased neural variability (as reflected by theta ITC) as a neurophysiological characteristic of a core neural dysfunction in ADHD.
认知控制缺陷和受试者内变异性增加已被确认为注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的核心特征，并且人们对其在神经层面的表现越来越感兴趣。我们旨在研究ADHD中的神经变异性，这在错误处理过程中的θ波试验间相位相干性（ITC）中有所体现，错误处理是一个涉及认知控制的过程。在一项针对有ADHD家族风险儿童的前瞻性纵向研究中，我们检查了错误处理的传统事件相关电位（ERP）测量指标（即错误相关负波[ERN]和错误正波[Pe]）以及θ波ITC。参与者是63名自出生起就被跟踪的男性青少年。在17岁时，他们进行停止信号任务（SST），同时持续进行脑电图（EEG）记录。使用受试者未能抑制反应的试验中的EEG数据来计算三种不同的神经生理学测量指标（即ERN、Pe和θ波ITC）。与我们的假设一致，错误处理期间的θ波ITC比传统ERP测量指标更能预测ADHD症状。此外，我们发现整个童年期的ADHD症状与θ波ITC有独特的关联，这超出了青少年期的ADHD症状。总体而言，我们的研究结果强化了这样一种观点，即神经变异性增加（以θ波ITC为反映）是ADHD核心神经功能障碍的一种神经生理学特征。
