PhD Scientific Days 2023

Mental Health Sciences - Posters M

Resting-state EEG characteristics in ADHD

Text of the abstract

Introductions: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 3—5% of school-aged children. It is characterized by symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Although the frequently prominent daytime symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are well described, the neural background of insufficient attentional processes has been explored to a limited extent.

Aims: Recent theories of ADHD suggest that the poorer cognitive and behavioral outcomes originate from the deficits of temporal information processing impairment of these participants. Here we aim to reveal the differences of neuronal oscillatory routes of attentional and temporal processing untypicalities in children with and without ADHD, by analyzing resting state band-limited resting state EEG spectral before and after the auditory task.

Methods: Resting-state EEG of 10 children with ADHD and 10 typically developing controls (total: N=20 children, age group 8-12) was investigated in laboratory conditions, prior to and after an auditory target detection task. The sampling rate was 1024 Hz, and ca. 3 minutes eyes-opened resting-state data was recorded from each participants from 31 channels.
The power spectrum analysis was performed with an FFT routine (2s, Hanning taper, 50% overlap). We calculated the averaged log power for the pre-task and post-task sessions, in the following frequency ranges: delta (0.5-4) Hz, theta (4-7) Hz, alpha (8-12) Hz, beta (13-30) Hz, gamma (30-80) Hz.
Statistical analysis was based on general linear models, separately for each frequency band.

Results: Expected differences in band power values according to frequencies ranges and topography were revealed. There were no significant group differences in band power, neither in pre-task nor in post-task recordings.

Conclusions: Results suggest that the children with ADHD do not shows increased fatigue in their resting state data ither before or after the auditory task.

Funding: The study was supported by STIA-OTKA-2020 (61831Z0100, awarded to Orsolya Szalárdy by the Semmelweis University).