Authors: Anthony R Ward Gabriela Alarcón Joel T Nigg Erica D Musser
Publish Date: 2015/07/29
Volume: 43, Issue: 8, Pages: 1573-1583
Abstract
Although attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ADHD is associated with impairment in working memory and shortterm memory up to half of individual children with ADHD perform within a normative range Heterogeneity in other ADHDrelated mechanisms which may compensate for or combine with cognitive weaknesses is a likely explanation One candidate is the robustness of parasympathetic regulation as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia RSA Theory and data suggest that a common neural network is likely tied to both heartrate regulation and certain cognitive functions including aspects of working and shortterm memory Cardiacderived indices of parasympathetic reactivity were collected during shortterm memory STM storage and rehearsal tasks from 243 children 116 ADHD 127 controls ADHD was associated with lower STM performance replicating previous work In addition RSA reactivity moderated the association between STM and ADHD – both as a category and a dimension – independent of comorbidity Specifically conditional effects revealed that high levels of withdrawal interacted with weakened STM but high levels of augmentation moderated a positive association predicting ADHD Thus variations in parasympathetic reactivity may help explain neuropsychological heterogeneity in ADHD
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