Task 1 Flashcards
(35 cards)
What is ADHD?
Persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity significantly higher than expected for child at that developmental stage
• Deficit in working memory (WM), executive fuctioning (planning, response inhibition, reasoning) and temporal processing
Neurodevelopmental disorder —> develops since childhood and diagnosed between 7 and 12 years old
How does attention deficit manifest?
- Lack of attention in academic, occupational or social situation
- Careless mistakes at school/work
- Failure to take in or respond to instructions
- Tendency to switch between unfinished tasks
How does hyperactivity manifests?
• Excessive fidgetiness and talkting
• Not remaining seated when asked
• Excessive running/climbing when inappropriate
• Difficulties in sedentary activities
----> e.g. cannot listen to a storyHow does impulsivity manifests?
• Impatience
• Difficulty in delaying responses
—-> e.g. go out of house before putting on a coat
• Interrupting others
• Desire for immediate rewards over delayed rewards
—-> e.g. Marshmallow task
DSM-5 criteria to diagnose ADHD
• Two types of ADHD presentation
—> innatention and hyperactivity/impulsivity presentation
• Symptons present before age of 12 in at least 2 settings
• Symp. reduce quality of educational, social or occupational ability
• Symp. do not occur during other psychotic disorders
+ has to be present for longer than 6 months
It is possible to have a combined representation of ADHD.
What does this mean?
What consequences does this have?
Show symptoms for both the innattention AND hyperactivity/impulsivity presentation
High rates of comorbidity –> around 50% of kids will also be diagnosed with other disorder(s)
When is ADHD usually diagnosed?
In school, since learning and adjustment is significantly affected
How frequent do people have ADHD?
—> Prevalence
5% of school-aged kiddos; 2,5% of adults around the world
—> about half of the kiddos with ADHD carry it into adulthood
What are some of the consequences of ADHD?
- Poor academic achievement
- Prone to frustration and/or temper outbursts
- Low self-esteem
- Difficulties within families since ADHD children’s behaviour is seen as intentional, wilful and irresponsible
- Difficulties in making friends and integrating in social groups, usually due to aggressive or disruptive behaviour
What are the possible causes of ADHD?
Biolofical factors: • Genetic • Gene-environmetn interaction • Neuroscience • Prenatal factors Psychological factors: • Parent-child interaction • Theory of mind
Genetic factors
- Heritability of around 70% –> proved from adoption studies
- Genetic abonormalities in NT systems of dopamine, nonrepinephrine and serotonin which causes in ADHD
Gene-environment-interaction
ADHD is heritable but it may only show when certain environmental influences are active
—> genetic abnormalities + smoking during pregnancy (prenantal factor) = higher levels of hyperactivity and impulsiveness
Neuroscience - cognitive
• MRI studies show ADHD brains are 3,2% smaller and develop slower
—> immature brain hypothesis
• Abonormalities in cerebellum’s influence on cortico-striatal-thalamo cirtuits involved in choosing, initiating and carrying our complx motor and cognitive responses
What are the differences in neurological functioning and cerebral blood flow in children in ADHD?
- PFC is smaller in volume and shows abnormal activation when children try to inhibit their responses
—> regulates attention, organization planning - Catecholamine neurotransmitter, which are involved in inhibiting impulses
—> includes dopamine, serotonin, nonrepinephrine - Less connectivity between PFC and emotional, motor and memory areas
Parent-child interaction
Child with ADHD are likely to have parents with ADHD –> parents impatient with children –> less effective parenting styles –> children defy = cicle
Does systematic training of WM tasks over 5 weeks improve WM, executive functions and reduce ADHD symptoms?
Tasks: Span-board, digit span, stroop task, Rave’s colored progressive matrices
Yes, WM can be improved by training (significant improvement in span-board task) and ADHD symptoms can be decreased as rated by parents (teacher’s rating scores were not significant.
ADHD more related to visuospatial WM
External incentives can help ADHD children to optimize motivational state and improve performance.
Why is that?
ADHD kiddos prefer immediate reward over delayed reward –> delay aversion
Researchers showed computerization of tasks (CAI) increases interes and motivation which leads to better performance
Computer Assisted Instruction CAI
Programs that include clear goals, highlighting important material and immediate feedback
–> children playing a game format of CAI can sustain attention, concetrate longer time and behave less impulsively
How does adding game elements influence training on motivation, performance and WM?
- Control training - suares light up in a sequence; child has to repeat the sequence
- Game training - same thing but with animations, a story line, a goal and rewards
—> Results show more effectivenes in game format: less absence time, more sequences performed, more satisfaction from kids, fewer errors, increased WM span.
What are some problems in WM training research?
- Practise effects
- Lack of research studying ONLY inhibitory control
- Lack of below-school age children studies
Do training programs have an effect on visuospatial WM and inhibitory control? (Thorell article)
Training programs:
• WM -> stumili presented in sequence, child repeats
• Inhibition -> 1) go/no-go 2) stop-signal 3) flanker task
WM trainings DID have effects on both trained and non-trained WM tasks and improved attention
Ihibitory control training improved on several trained tasks but not on non-traintasks of inhibition or executive functioning
Studies show that WM training, but not inhibition control training, does have an effect on non-trained tasks
What possible explanations are there for this?
- Possible different areas associated with WM and inhibition systems have different plasticity
- Hard to manipulae difficutly levels in inhibition training tasks
- Some childrem were already pretty good on the task so there is little space for improvement
Why hasn’t been possible to find ONE possible contributory factor to create a grand theory of ADHD?
Because ADHD has a heterogeneous nature (caused by various factors and affects several different brain regions for different individuals) and has an associations with other problems in childhood
Stop Signal Paradigm SSP
Tests ability to inhibit an already intiated response (visual) when signalled to do so (auditory)
—> ADHD kiddos show longer stop signals reactions
