Abstract
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is reported to have an incidence of 3–5%, and is associated with a variety of interpersonal, academic, and social problem behaviors. There is controversy as to whether ADHD is a learned behavioral or brain dysfunction. Research has explored a variety of measures to assess behavioral and brain dysfunctions in this population, with no consistent and clearly diagnostic results. We investigated whether a new psychometric and a new electroencephalographic procedure would clearly differentiate ADHD. The psychometric was based on DSM-IV criteria and the EEG measure was based on the assumption that ADHD interferes with cognitive transition from one discrete task to another. Parents of four ADHD boys (ages 8–12) and four age- and interest-matched non-ADHD boys completed the ADHD Symptom Inventory, while their sons' EEG was monitored during viewing of a video and reading of a book. For the ADHD boys, this was repeated a second time, 3 months later, to assess test-retest reliability. Both the psychometric and the EEG measures clearly differentiated the two samples (p's < .01) with no overlap in scores, were reliable over 3 months (r = .87), and were significantly correlated with one another (r = .85). While a small sample size, these robust, related and reliable findings suggest that both the psychometric and the psychophysiological EEG measures deserve further replication and exploration.
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Cox, D.J., Kovatchev, B.P., Morris, J.B. et al. Electroencephalographic and Psychometric Differences Between Boys with and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Pilot Study. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 23, 179–188 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022247405278
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022247405278