Asymmetrical hemispheric control of visual-spatial attention in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Neuropsychology. 1997 Oct;11(4):467-473. doi: 10.1037/0894-4105.11.4.467.

Abstract

As neuropsychological mechanisms for attention have been hypothesized to be located in the right hemisphere of the brain, several investigators have begun to conceptualize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related attentional deficits as involving right-hemispheric abnormalities. The authors evaluated and compared adult patients diagnosed with ADHD with a non-ADHD group of patients using a chronometric visual-spatial attention task that is sensitive to hemispheric differences in efficiency of information processing. Reaction times across different cuing conditions, cue-target delays, and visual fields were assessed. When participants' attention was misdirected with cues in the right visual field and attention had to be switched to a target on the left visual field, there was a longer delay among ADHD adults than non-ADHD adults, specifically when the interval between the cue and target was 800 ms as compared with 100 ms. This specific pattern of dysfunction was interpreted as a difficulty with maintaining attention possibly associated with anterior attention mechanisms in the right hemisphere.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / psychology*
  • Cues
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Orientation / physiology
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Space Perception / physiology*
  • Visual Perception / physiology*