[The hyperkinetic patient in the light of PASS theory]

The PASS theory of intelligence is a new conception of the cognitive mental function. According to this theory, we think to learn by using four programs or processes: planning, attention, successive and simultaneous. We can assess every process as an entity. Every process is linked to an anatomical region: planning to frontal cortex, attention to frontal cortex and subcortical structures, successive and simultaneous to no-frontal cortex. This relationship between program and specific anatomical region does not mean every program does not use different non specific anatomical regions.

To verify whether the patients with attentional deficit disorder and hyperactivity and impulsivity show a characteristic pattern of information processing according to PASS theory.

A group of 33 patients with attentional deficit disorder with hyperactivity and impulsivity, selected according to DSM-IV criteria, was compared to a control group of 45 normal subjects. The DN:CAS battery was used.

The patients with attentional deficit disorder showed more frequently worse planning (p = 0.001). Furthermore, worse attention (p = 0.01) and worse successive (p = 0.01). Also, they showed more frequently (p = 0.001) the association planning-attention-successive in deficient way.

The basic problem in attentional deficit disorder of this kind is planning. The concurrent deficit in successive and attention supports the hypothesis of failure in the frontal cortex, concretely, in the control unit. This would explain, also, the impulsivity.