Altered proactive control in adults with ADHD: Evidence from event-related potentials during cued task switching

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuropsychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Cognitive control operates in proactive and reactive modes, crucial for goal-directed behavior.
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is linked to cognitive control deficits, but research often overlooks proactive control.
• Understanding these deficits is vital for ADHD diagnosis and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of proactive and reactive cognitive control in adults with ADHD compared to healthy controls.
• To examine how cue informativeness affects cognitive control processes in ADHD.
• To differentiate between proactive and reactive control impairments in ADHD.

Main Methods:

• A cued switching task with manipulated cue informativeness was administered to adults with ADHD and healthy controls.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded to capture neural activity.
• Cue-locked and target-locked EEG analyses were performed to assess proactive and reactive control, respectively.

Main Results:

• The ADHD group showed a trend towards slower responding but no significant performance differences.
• Cue-locked EEG revealed an attenuated 'informative-positivity' and altered 'switch-positivity' lateralization in the ADHD group, indicating impaired proactive control.
• No differences in target-locked activity (reactive control) were observed between groups.

Conclusions:

• Adults with ADHD exhibit deficits in proactive cognitive control, characterized by reduced utilization of advance information and abnormal preparatory neural activity.
• Findings suggest that proactive control, rather than reactive control, is more significantly impaired in ADHD.
• These results highlight the importance of considering proactive control mechanisms in the context of ADHD.