Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Frontal P300 Decrement and Executive Dysfunction in Adolescents with Conduct Problems

  • Published:
Child Psychiatry and Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study investigated the cognitive and cerebral function of adolescents with conduct problems by neuropsychological battery (STIM) and event-related potential (ERP). Eighteen adolescents with conduct disorder, and 18 age-matched normal subjects were included. Such cognitive functions as attention, memory, executive function and problem solving were evaluated using subtests of STIM. ERP was measured using an auditory oddball paradigm. The conduct group showed a significantly lower hit rate on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) than the control group. In addition, the conduct group showed reduced P300 amplitude at Fz and Cz, and prolonged P300 latency at Fz, and there was a significant correlation between P300 amplitude and Stroop test performance. These results indicate that adolescents with conduct problems have impairments of executive function and inhibition, and that these impairments are associated with frontal dysfunction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Robins LN: Conduct disorder. J Child Psy Psyc 32: 193-212, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Huesmann LR, Eron LD, Lefkowitz MM: Stability of aggression over time and generations. Developm Psych 20: 1120-1134, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Anderson JC, Williams S, McGee R: DSM-III disorders in preadolescent children: prevalence in a large sample from the general population. Arch Gen Psychiat 44: 69-78, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bird HR, Canino G, Rubio-Stipec M: Estimates of the prevalence of childhood maladjustment in a community survey in Puerto Rico. Arch Gen Psychiat 45: 1120-1126, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cantwell DP, Baker L: Psychiatric and developmental disorders in children with communication disorders. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press, pp. 73-110, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gillen R, Hesselbrock V: Cognitive functioning, ASP and family history of alcoholism in young men risk for alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res 16: 206-214, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Giancola PR, Mezzich AC, Tarter RE: Executive cognitive functioning, temperament and antisocial behavior in conduct-disordered adolescent females. J Abn Psych 107: 629-641, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Milner B: Effects of different brain regions of card sorting: the role of the frontal lobes. Arch Neurol 9: 90-100, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Picton TW: The P300 wave of the human event-related potential. J Clin Neurophysiol 9(4): 456-479, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Donchin E, Coles MGH: Is the P300 component a manifestation of context updating? Behav Brain Sci 11: 357-374, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Verleger R: Event-related potentials and cognition: a critique of the context updating hypothesis and an alternative interpretation of P3. Behav Brain Sci 11: 343-356, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kutas M, McCarthy G, Donchin E: Augmenting mental chronometry: the P300 as a measure of stimulus evaluation time. Science 197: 792-795, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  14. St Clair DM, Blackwood DH, Christie JE: P3 and other long latency auditory evoked potentials in presenile dementia Alzheimer type and alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome. Br J Psychiat 147: 702-706, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Gordon E, Kraiuhin C, Harris A, Meares R, Howson A: The differential diagnosis of dementia using P300 latency. Biol Psychiat 21: 1123-1132, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Brecher M, Begleiter H: Event related brain potentials to high incentive stimuli in unmedicated schizophrenic patients. Biol Psychiat 18: 661-674, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Michie PT, Fox AM, Ward PB, Catts SV, Mcconaghy N: Event related potential indices of selective attention and cortical lateralization in schizophrenia. Psychophysiology 27: 209-227, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Bauer LO, Hesselbrock VM: Subtypes of family history and conduct disorder effects on P300 during the stroop test. Neuropsychopharmacology 21(1): 51-62, 1999a.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rosvold HE, Mirsky AF, Sarason I, Bransome ED, Beck LH: A continuous performance test of brain damage. J Consult Psych 20: 343-350, 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Stroop JR: Studies of interference in serial verbal reaction. J Exp Psych 18: 643-662, 1935.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wechsler D: A standardized memory scale for clinical use. J Psych 19: 87-95, 1945.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Berg EA: A simple objective technique for measuring flexibility in thinking. J Gen Psych 39: 15-22, 1948.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Grant DA, Berg EA: A behavioral analysis of degree of impairment and ease of shifting to new responses in a Weigl-typed card sorting problem. J Exp Psych 39: 404-411, 1948.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Yum TH, Park YS, Oh KJ, Kim JG, Lee YH: The manual of Korean-Wechsler adult intelligence scale. Seoul: Korean Guidance Press.

  25. Polich J: Attention, probability and task demands as determinants of P300 latency from auditory stimuli. Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol 63: 251-259, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Dodge KA: Attributional bias in aggressive children. In PC Kendall (Ed), Advances in cognitive-behavioral research and therapy Vol. 4. Orlando: Academic Press, pp. 73-110, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kazdin AE, Rodger A, Colbus D: Children's hostility inventory: measurement of aggression and hostility in psychiatric inpatient children. J Clin Child Psych 16: 320-328, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Lewis DO, Shanok SS: A comparison of the medical history of increased delinquent children and a matched sample of nondelinquent children. Child Psychiat Hum Developm 9: 210-214, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Lewis DO, Pincus JH, Bard B: Neuropsychiatric, psychoeducational and family characteristics of 14 juveniles condemned to death in the United States. Am J Psychiat 145: 584-589, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Gold JM, Carpenter C, Randolph C, Goldberg TE, Weinberger DR: Auditory working memory and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiat 54: 159-165, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Arnett PA, Rao SM, Bernardin L, Grafman J, Yetkin FZ, Lobeck L: Relationship between frontal lobe lesions and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in patients with multiple sclerosis. Neurology 44: 420-425, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Rezai K, Andreasen NC, Alliger R, Cohen G, Swayze V, O'Leary DS: The neuropsychology of the prefrontal cortex. Arch Neurol 59: 636-642, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Weinberger DR, Berman KF, Zec RF: Physiological dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia; I: regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) evidence. Arch Gen Psychiat 45: 609-615, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Costa L, Bauer LO, Kuperman S, Porjesz B, O'Connor S, Hesselbrock VM, Rohrbaugh J, Begleiter H: Frontal P300 decrements, alcohol dependence and antisocial personality disorder. Biol Psychiat 47: 1064-1071, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Bauer LO, Hesselbrock VM: P300 decrements in teenagers with conduct problems: implications for substance abuse risk and brain development. Biol Psychiat 46(2): 263-272, 1999b.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Goodin DS, Squires KC, Starr A: Long latency event-related components of the auditory evoked potential in dementia. Brain 101: 635-648, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  37. MacLeod C: Half a century of research on Stroop effect: an integrative review. Psychol Bulletin 109: 163-203, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Perret E: The left frontal lobe of man and the suppression of habitual responses in verbal categorical behavior. Neuropsychologia 12: 323-330, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Raine A, Buchsbaum MA, Stanley J, Lottenberg S, Abel L, Stoddard J: Selective reductions in prefrontal glucose metabolism in murderers. Biol Psychiat 36: 365-373, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Raine A, Stoddard J, Bihrle S, Buchsbaum M: Prefrontal glucose deficits in murderers lacking psychosocial deprivation. Neuropsychiat Neuropsych Behav Neurol 11: 1-7, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seoul National University, Korea

    Myung-Sun Kim & Jae-Jin Kim

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Medical College, Neuroscience Institute, SNU-MRC & BK21 Life Sciences, Seoul National University, 28 Yeongon-dong Chongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

    Jun Soo Kwon

Authors
  1. Myung-Sun Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jae-Jin Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jun Soo Kwon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kim, MS., Kim, JJ. & Kwon, J.S. Frontal P300 Decrement and Executive Dysfunction in Adolescents with Conduct Problems. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 32, 93–106 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012299822274

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012299822274

Search

Navigation