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Lateral Prefrontal Theta Oscillations Reflect Proactive Cognitive Control Impairment in Males With Attention Deficit
Francisco Zamorano1,2,3, Leonie Kausel4, Carlos Albornoz5
1Laboratorio de Neurociencia Social y Neuromodulación, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (neuroCICS), Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile.
Insights
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show impairments in proactive cognitive control, a key prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. Their brain activity, specifically theta oscillations, did not adapt during a task, unlike typically developing children.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric condition associated with deficits in prefrontal cortex (PFC) functions.
- Proactive cognitive control, essential for anticipating and managing cognitive demands, relies heavily on PFC maturity and is implicated in ADHD symptomatology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate proactive cognitive control impairments in children with ADHD.
- To examine if these impairments are associated with altered prefrontal cortex oscillatory activity.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to record brain activity in 29 male children with ADHD and 25 typically developing (TD) male children.
- Participants performed a Go-Nogo task designed to elicit proactive cognitive control, with increasing Nogo stimulus probability after consecutive Go stimuli.
- Behavioral (reaction time) and electrophysiological (P3a potential, theta oscillation) measures were analyzed.
Main Results:
- TD children demonstrated proactive cognitive control by adjusting reaction times based on preceding Go stimuli, unlike children with ADHD.
- TD children exhibited modulations in P3a potential and lateral prefrontal theta oscillations, indicative of proactive control.
- Children with ADHD, as a group, did not show these P3a or theta modulations, although individual theta activity correlated with ADHD symptom severity.
Conclusions:
- Children with ADHD exhibit deficits in proactive cognitive control, linked to atypical prefrontal cortex oscillatory activity.
- The findings suggest a neurobiological basis for proactive cognitive control impairments in ADHD, highlighting the role of theta oscillations.
- Individual differences in theta activity may reflect varying degrees of cognitive control dysfunction in ADHD.
Abstract:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in which children present prefrontal cortex (PFC) related functions deficit. Proactive cognitive control is a process that anticipates the requirement of cognitive control and crucially depends on the maturity of the PFC. Since this process is important to ADHD symptomatology, we here test the hypothesis that children with ADHD have proactive cognitive control impairments and that these impairments are reflected in the PFC oscillatory activity. We recorded EEG signals from 29 male children with ADHD and 25 typically developing (TD) male children while they performed a Go-Nogo task, where the likelihood of a Nogo stimulus increased while a sequence of consecutive Go stimuli elapsed. TD children showed proactive cognitive control by increasing their reaction time (RT) concerning the number of preceding Go stimuli, whereas children with ADHD did not. This adaptation was related to modulations in both P3a potential and lateral prefrontal theta oscillation for TD children. Children with ADHD as a group did not demonstrate either P3a or theta modulation. But, individual variation in theta activity was correlated with the ADHD symptomatology. The results depict a neurobiological mechanism of proactive cognitive control impairments in children with ADHD.
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