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Can auditory warning signals normalize eye movements in children with ADHD?
Johan Lundin Kleberg1,2, Matilda A Frick3, Karin C Brocki3
1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Gävlegatan 22, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden. johan.lundin.kleberg@ki.se.
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
|February 3, 2020
Summary
Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms showed normalized reaction times when given warning signals, suggesting arousal modulation may help attention.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Attenuated baseline arousal is a proposed mechanism for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
- Warning signals may temporarily increase arousal, benefiting performance in reaction tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if children with ADHD symptoms are hyperresponsive to warning signals.
- To examine saccadic reaction times and pupil dilation as biomarkers of arousal in ADHD.
Main Methods:
- A preregistered study involving 71 children (1/3 with ADHD diagnosis) using the gap/overlap visual attention task.
- Dimensional and group analyses of saccadic latency, latency variability, and pupil dilation.
- Auditory warning signals were introduced to assess their effect on performance.
Main Results:
- Replication of slower and more variable saccadic reaction times in children with ADHD.
- Auditory warning signals normalized saccadic latency in children with ADHD symptoms.
- Pupil dilation confirmed warning signals enhanced arousal, linked to locus coeruleus-noradrenergic activity.
Conclusions:
- Warning signals can normalize attention-related eye movement metrics in children with ADHD.
- Findings support the role of arousal modulation in ADHD and suggest potential intervention targets.
- Saccadic latency and pupil dilation serve as valuable biomarkers for studying arousal in ADHD.
