[Differences in early visual cerebral processing in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorders with...

To evaluate attentional processes to visual stimuli that do not require motor response, a study with evoked potentials was carried out on 17 children with attention deficit disorder predominantly inattentive (ADDH-I) and 15 controls between the ages of 7 and 11 years. The latency and localization of sources of the early visual evoked potentials P100 and N100 were analyzed during the performance of a visual oddball task (20% horizontal and 80% vertical lines) where the vertical lines did not require motor response. The results indicate that ADDH-I group process visual information that does not require motor response with a greater increase in brain activity and through the ventral temporal pathway, while the control group does so by means of the dorsal parietal stream. This neurobiological process of visual information processing by ventral temporal pathway of ADDH-I group could be due to alterations in emotional processes that directly influence visual recognition or as consequence of deficit in the control of attentional processes by the dorsal parietal pathway.