Attention state in electrodermal activity during auditory stimulation of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Electrodermal activity during passive and active listening tasks of 18 children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and 49 healthy school children was studied. The procedure included baseline recording, a passive listening task, instructions, and both simple and discriminative active-listening tasks. ADHD subjects tended to exhibit lower arousal as indicated by the decrease in amplitude of the skin conductance response. Present findings confirm classical observation that ADHD children have shorter attention spans.