Age-Related Changes in Distractibility: Developmental Trajectory of Sustained Attention in ADHD

Ortal Slobodin ¹ Hanoch Cassuto ² Itai Berger ³

¹Education, Ben-Gurion University
²Pediatric Neurology, Leumit and Clalit HMO
³The Neuro-Cognitive Center, Pediatric Neurology Unit, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

OBJECTIVE:

This study investigated age-related changes in sustained attention in children with ADHD and in their typically developed peers.

METHOD:

The study used a Continuous Performance Test (CPT) that includes visual and auditory stimuli serving as distractors. The rate of omission errors was used as a measurement of difficulty in sustained attention. Participants were children and adolescents aged 7 to 18 years (478 with ADHD and 361 without ADHD).

RESULTS:

Both groups of adolescents (with and without ADHD) showed reduced distractibility than younger children from the same group. However, distractibility tended to diminish in non-ADHD adolescents, but not in adolescents with ADHD.

CONCLUSION:

Although part of the difficulties in ADHD could be explained by developmental delay that improves with time, other deficits, such as increased distractibility causing more omission errors, do not show a clear developmental trajectory. The results suggest that deficits in inhibitory control might be the core of ADHD.