Abstract
ADHD is a childhood disorder characterized by inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity, resulting in impairment in multiple life domains. One of the deficient cognitive mechanisms in ADHD is WM, though different studies have found varying results in regard to the role of WM in ADHD. Previous EEG studies showed inconsistent findings regarding anomalous alpha activity in participants with ADHD. For instance, some found asymmetric rightward alpha in children with ADHD compare to control, while others did not find these differences. The aim of this study was to examine the relations between resting state EEG alpha power, WM performance and ADHD symptoms among ADHD children. The sample was comprised of 28 children (aged 8-12 year-olds) diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria. All participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks and a 5 minutes session of eyes-closed resting state EEG recording. Consistently with previous findings, a significant negative correlation was found between the magnitude of Hyperactivity/Impulsivity symptoms and the performance in a backward visuospatial WM task, indicating that severe symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity were correlated with lower WM performance. In addition, central alpha asymmetry and performance in a backward phonological WM task were highly correlated. That is, the more rightward the central alpha was the worse the WM performance. Further studies are necessary to investigate these relations and their potential contribution in early identification of young children who are at risk for developing difficulties in working memory and later on in academic performance. The search for early identification may enable us to support children by introducing early individually tailored intervention programs in order to improve their WM performance, and in turn, facilitate learning in various contexts.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018