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Published on: September 18, 2012
Right-sided spatial difficulties in ADHD demonstrated in continuous movement control
K A Johnson1, A Dáibhis, C T Tobin
1School of Psychology and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland. k.johnson@qub.ac.uk
Insights
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) exhibit a rightward bias in movement accuracy, extending spatial attention deficits into motor control. This suggests potential cerebellar involvement in ADHD
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Movement Science
Background:
- Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often display spatial attentional deficits, characterized by a rightward bias.
- Approximately 50% of children with ADHD also exhibit motor dysfunction, though its nature and relation to spatial attention remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate movement kinematic precision in children with and without ADHD.
- To explore the potential interaction between spatial attention deficits and motor control in ADHD.
Main Methods:
- Compared 31 children with ADHD and 31 controls on a hand-drawing movement precision task using a digitizing tablet.
- Analyzed movement parameters including constant error, peak velocity, acceleration, movement time, and pauses.
Main Results:
- Children with ADHD showed increased acceleration but no temporal difficulties.
- Subtle spatial difficulties were observed, with reduced accuracy towards right-sided targets and greater variability for small right-sided targets.
- ADHD group made more pauses when preparing rightward movements.
Conclusions:
- The rightward spatial bias seen in ADHD attention extends to continuous movement tasks.
- Findings suggest potential cerebellar involvement in the motor control deficits observed in ADHD.
Abstract:
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often show spatial attentional deficits, exhibiting a subtle rightwards bias, possibly due to dysfunction within the right hemisphere fronto-parietal network. Approximately 50% of children with ADHD also show signs of movement dysfunction. The nature of this movement dysfunction and possible interactions with spatial attention difficulties has not been clearly described. This study compared 31 children with and 31 children without ADHD on a movement kinematic task that tested hand-drawing movement precision. Participants used an electronic pen on a digitizing tablet. The pen tip position was sampled as X and Y coordinates at 200Hz. The task was to join targets of either 10 or 20mm diameter that were separated by a distance of 62.5 or 125 mm. Constant error in the X and Y planes, peak absolute velocity and acceleration, movement time, the number of pauses and pause time were analysed. Apart from a significantly increased rate of acceleration across all conditions, the children with ADHD demonstrated no temporal difficulties with the task; rather they showed subtle spatial difficulties, possibly suggestive of cerebellar involvement. The children with ADHD showed difficulties in accuracy of movement towards the right. They were less accurate in the X plane when moving towards the right-sided targets over the long distance. Greater variability in target accuracy was shown when moving towards the small target on the right side. The children with ADHD made significantly more pauses on the left target, when preparing the right movement, than the control group. These results suggest that the subtle spatial bias towards the right that has been demonstrated in ADHD in spatial attention also extends into the continuous movement domain.
