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Increased Prefrontal Oxygenation Related to Distractor-Resistant Working Memory in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

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Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effect of distraction on working memory and its underlying neural mechanisms in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To this end, we studied hemodynamic activity in the prefrontal cortex using near-infrared spectroscopy while 16 children with ADHD and 10 typically developing (TD) children performed a working memory task. This task had two conditions: one involved a distraction during the memory delay interval, whereas the other had no systematic distraction. The ADHD patients showed significantly poorer behavioral performance compared with the TD group, particularly under the distraction. The ADHD group exhibited significantly higher level of prefrontal activation than did TD children. The activity level was positively correlated with the severity of ADHD symptoms. These results suggest that the impairment in the inhibition of distraction is responsible for the working memory deficits observed in ADHD children. Inefficient processing in the prefrontal cortex appears to underlie such deficits.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Saori Kajima, Kana Nishikawa, and Joy Ko for their technical assistance. This work was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (22-6; Clinical Research for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Innovations in Developmental Disorders) for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP.

Conflict of interest

The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-Ku, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Satoshi Tsujimoto

  2. Department of Developmental Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan

    Akira Yasumura, Makiko Kaga & Masumi Inagaki

  3. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Akira Yasumura

  4. Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan

    Yushiro Yamashita

  5. Division of Psychological Development, Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Miyuki Torii

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  1. Satoshi Tsujimoto
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  3. Yushiro Yamashita
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Correspondence to Satoshi Tsujimoto.

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Tsujimoto, S., Yasumura, A., Yamashita, Y. et al. Increased Prefrontal Oxygenation Related to Distractor-Resistant Working Memory in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 44, 678–688 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-013-0361-2

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