Latent Inhibition in ADHD Adults On and Off Medication: A Preliminary Study

R. E. Lubow, Oren Kaplan, Iris Manor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effects of stimulant medication on performance of ADHD adults on a selective attention task that assesses the processing of irrelevant stimuli. Method: ADHD patients and matched controls were given two sessions of a two-stage visual search-latent inhibition (LI) task. In stage-1, they detected the location of a unique shape presented with homogeneous distractors. In stage- 2, target detection response time was examined as a function of the stage-1 experience with the target or distractor, or both, providing a within-subject measure of LI. In Session-1, the ADHD subjects were off their customary stimulant medication. In Session-2, they were on medication. Results: Off-medicated ADHD subjects exhibited similar LI to that of controls; medicated ADHD subjects exhibited less LI than controls. Group differences in LI were mediated by RTs to the previously task-irrelevant distractor stimulus. Conclusion: The attenuated LI of the on-medication ADHD group is attributable to drug action that reduces attentional resources allocated to distractors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-631
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Attention Disorders
Volume18
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2014

Keywords

  • ADHD
  • adults
  • latent inhibition
  • stimulants
  • task-irrelevant stimuli

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