Characterizing Attention and Cognitive Control Profiles of Children With ADHD and Anxiety

Children with ADHD show attentional and cognitive control deficits compared to typically developing controls. However, it is unclear whether these deficits are function-specific to subcomponents of attention and cognitive control and/or disorder-specific, that is, unique to one clinical group.

Here, we characterized subcomponents of attentional and cognitive control in children with ADHD (N = 37, 21.6% girls), ADHD and comorbid anxiety disorder (AnxD, N = 24, 50% girls), AnxD (N = 39, 30.8% girls), as well as typically developing controls (N = 36, 41.7% girls) aged 7 to 14 years, using behavioral measures from the Attention Network Test (ANT) and AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc t-test were used to test for group differences. Cohen's d was used as a measure of effect size for significant group differences.

Children with ADHD and children with ADHD and comorbid AnxD showed lower accuracy (Cohen's d = -0.91/-1.08), higher reaction time variability (Cohen's d = 0.81/1.13) in ANT-derived measures and lower accuracy (Cohen's d = -0.89/-1.04) and A-cue bias (Cohen's d = -0.92/-0.98) in AX-CPT -derived measures compared to controls. Children with ADHD and comorbid AnxD also exhibited higher reaction time (Cohen's d = 0.83) in the ANT and lower d'-context (Cohens' d = -0.97) in the AX-CPT compared to controls.

The results indicate function-specific deficits in cognitive control, but not in attention, among children with ADHD and comorbid AnxD. We did not find strong evidence for disorder-specific deficits in attention or cognitive control.