Visuospatial Attention Bias is Related to ADHD Symptomology: A Behavioural and Electrophysiological Analysis
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1
The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia
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2
Monash University, School of Psychological Sciences, Australia
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3
Trinity College Dublin, School of Engineering and Trinity centre for Bioengineering, Ireland
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4
City College of the City University of New York, Department of Biomedical Engineering, United States
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5
Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Ireland
Healthy subjects tend to exhibit a subtle bias or asymmetry of visual attention favouring left space, termed 'pseudoneglect', where visual stimuli in the left hemifield are processed slightly more quickly and accurately than stimuli on the right. This is thought to arise from right hemisphere lateralised attention processing in healthy participants. An absence or reversal of the left hemifield advantage appears to mark neurological vulnerability across a number of disorders of attention, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the neural processes underpinning the relative leftward inattention in ADHD. EEG was recorded from 28 children diagnosed with ADHD and 23 typically developing control children while they performed a visuospatial attention task. As expected typically developing controls displayed a subtle but statistically significant visuospatial bias favouring left hemifield targets, while children with ADHD lacked this leftward advantage. A significant relationship between ADHD symptomology and visuospatial bias across all participants persisted after controlling for ADHD/control group membership, showing that relative leftward inattention was related to ADHD symptoms. Pre-target posterior alpha-band (9-13 Hz) EEG - a marker of cortical excitability linked to spatial attention orienting - was also significantly related to visuospatial attention bias, but not to ADHD symptomology. We have yet to complete investigation of post-target EEG relating to spatial attention orienting, and analysis is ongoing. However results from these preliminary analyses confirm that ADHD symptomology in children is related to visuospatial attention bias, which in turn is related to hemisphere asymmetry in the distribution of pre-target alpha-band activity.
Keywords:
Attention,
asymmetry,
ADHD,
Electroencephalography (EEG),
spatial bias
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Wagner
J,
Newman
D,
Loughnane
G,
Kelly
S,
O'Connell
R and
Bellgrove
M
(2015). Visuospatial Attention Bias is Related to ADHD Symptomology: A Behavioural and Electrophysiological Analysis.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00373
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Joseph Wagner, The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, joseph.wagner@uq.net.au