Executive and motivational processes in adolescents with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
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BioMed Central
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Executive and motivational processes in adolescents with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Maggie E Toplak*1,2, Umesh Jain3 and Rosemary Tannock1,4 Address: 1Brain and Behaviour Research Program, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, 2York University, Toronto, Canada, 3Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada and 4Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 2004–2005 Email: Maggie E Toplak* - [email protected]; Umesh Jain - [email protected]; Rosemary Tannock - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 27 June 2005 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2005, 1:8
doi:10.1186/1744-9081-1-8
Received: 10 March 2005 Accepted: 27 June 2005
This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/1/1/8 © 2005 Toplak et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: The objective of the current study was to examine performance and correlates of performance on a decision-making card task involving risky choices (Iowa Gambling Task) in adolescents with ADHD and comparison controls. Forty-four participants with ADHD and 34 controls were administered measures of estimated intellectual ability, working memory, and the card task. Also, behavioural ratings were obtained from parents and teachers. Results: Adolescents with ADHD scored lower on the measures of intellectual ability, working memory, and made less advantageous selections on the card task compared to controls. Performance on measures of intellectual ability and working memory were unrelated to card task performance in both the ADHD and control samples. Parent ratings of hyperactivity/impulsivity were significantly associated with card task performance in the adolescents with ADHD, but not in controls. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate impaired decision-making in adolescents with ADHD, and the separability of motivational and executive function processes, supporting current dual pathway models of ADHD.
Background Individuals with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more likely than their peers to make poor real-life decisions, as these individuals are described as impulsive [1], engage in more risky activities than controls [2,3], and tend to exhibit a preference for immediate rather than delayed rewards [4-7]. Much of the recent work over the last 20 years in ADHD has focused on the cognitive features of ADHD, defined as executive functions [8-10]. However, recent theories of ADHD have included both executive processes and motivational style characterized by delay aversion as two important path-
ways in ADHD [11,12]. The purpose of this study was to elaborate and extend this conceptualization by exam
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