Latent inhibition in ADHD adults on and off medication: a preliminary study
R E Lubow1, Oren Kaplan2, Iris Manor3
1Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel lubow@freud.tau.ac.il.
Objective:
To determine the effects of stimulant medication on performance of ADHD adults on a selective attention task that assesses the processing of irrelevant stimuli.
Method:
ADHD patients and matched controls were given two sessions of a two-stage visual search-latent inhibition (LI) task. In stage-1, they detected the location of a unique shape presented with homogeneous distractors. In stage- 2, target detection response time was examined as a function of the stage-1 experience with the target or distractor, or both, providing a within-subject measure of LI. In Session-1, the ADHD subjects were off their customary stimulant medication. In Session-2, they were on medication.
Results:
Off-medicated ADHD subjects exhibited similar LI to that of controls; medicated ADHD subjects exhibited less LI than controls. Group differences in LI were mediated by RTs to the previously task-irrelevant distractor stimulus.
Conclusion:
The attenuated LI of the on-medication ADHD group is attributable to drug action that reduces attentional resources allocated to distractors.
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