ARTICLES
Executive Function Oculomotor Tasks in Girls With ADHD

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200005000-00019Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Objective

To assess executive function in girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using oculomotor tasks as possible trait markers for neurobiological studies.

Method

Thirty-two girls aged 6 to 13 years with DSM-IV ADHD and 20 age-matched, normal control girls were tested on a variety of oculomotor tasks requiring attention, working memory, and response inhibition, which included smooth pursuit, delayed response, and go-no go tasks.

Results

Girls with ADHD performed the delayed response task correctly on 32% of trials as measured by number of memory-guided saccades, in contrast to 62% of trials for control subjects (p = .0009). Patients made twice as many commission errors to no go stimuli (p = .0001) and 3 times as many intrusion errors (saccades in the absence of go or no go stimuli; p = .004) during the go-no go task compared with controls. Smooth pursuit performance was statistically equivalent across subject groups. Repeated testing in a subgroup of 15 patients revealed substantial practice effects on go-no go performance.

Conclusions

The data confirm that girls with ADHD exhibit impairments in executive function, as has been reported in boys, implying a similar pathophysiology of ADHD in both sexes. However, practice effects may limit the utility of the oculomotor go-no go task for some neurobiological studies.

Section snippets

Subjects

ADHD Group. A total of 32 females with ADHD (mean age ± SD, 8.8 ± 1.9 years) were recruited from local clinics and schools. DSM-IV diagnoses were based on interview with a parent and separately with the patient if older than 9 years, using the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA) (Herjanic and Reich, 1997), the Conners Teacher Rating Scale-Revised (CTRS) (Conners, 1997), and the Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach et al., 1991). Patients were required to meet full DSM-IV

RESULTS

The order of testing was the same for all subjects, with smooth pursuit eye movement first, followed by go-no go and delayed response tasks. However, not all subjects completed all tasks, and data were unavailable for some tasks because of technical difficulties. Accordingly, results for each task are reported separately (TABLE 1, TABLE 2, TABLE 3). There were no significant group differences in age for any task.

As shown in Table 1, there were no significant differences among girls with ADHD

DISCUSSION

In this, the first examination of a battery of eye movement tasks in unmedicated girls with ADHD and age-matched control subjects, we found statistically robust abnormalities on the tasks that required inhibition and working memory, i.e., go-no go and delayed response. In contrast, we did not detect significant differences in eye movement performance during smooth pursuit. The latter result is largely consistent with findings in a sample of 17 boys and 1 girl with ADHD who did not differ from

REFERENCES (36)

  • KL Shue et al.

    Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the frontal lobe syndrome

    Brain Cogn

    (1992)
  • P Szatmari

    The epidemiology of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

    Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin North Am

    (1992)
  • TM Achenbach et al.

    National survey of problems and competencies among four- to sixteen- year-olds: parents' reports for normative and clinical samples

    Monogr Soc Res Child Dev

    (1991)
  • SP Bala et al.

    Saccades of hyperactive and normal boys during ocular pursuit

    Dev Med Child Neurol

    (1981)
  • RA Barkley

    Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD

    Psychol Bull

    (1997)
  • RT Brown et al.

    Gender differences in a clinic-referred sample of attention-deficit-disordered children

    Child Psychiatry Hum Dev

    (1991)
  • FW Bylsma et al.

    The effects of background illumination and stimulant medication on smooth pursuit eye movements of hyperactive children

    J Abnorm Child Psychol

    (1989)
  • FX Castellanos et al.

    Quantitative brain magnetic resonance imaging in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

    Arch Gen Psychiatry

    (1996)
  • Cited by (0)

    Support for this research was made possible in part by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Undergraduate Biology Education Program at Arizona State University.

    View full text