An investigation of visuospatial memory impairment in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined type
An investigation of visuospatial memory impairment in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined type
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DOI：
10.1017/s0033291705005234
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发表时间：
2005-10-01
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Vance, A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barnett, R;Maruff, P;Vance, A
Background. Memory impairment is not considered a core cognitive feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT), although it is associated with impairments in attentional and executive functions. This study investigates visuospatial memory impairment, in particular encoding and retrieval aspects, in children with ADHD-CT who are stimulant-medication naive and medicated with stimulant medication.Method. A cross-sectional Study of visuospatial memory in 6- to 12-year-old children with stimulant-medication-naive ADHD-CT (n=62) and medicated ADHD-CT (n=58) compared to an age- and gender-matched healthy control group (n=39) was completed.Results. Both medication-naive and medicated ADHD-CT groups demonstrated subtle yet significant impairment in visuospatial memory. The memory impairment was delay-independent, which, along with other factors, suggest dysfunction of the encoding rather than retrieval phase of visuospatial memory.Conclusions. Careful study of large ADHD-CT samples does detect deficits in a visuospatial memory task, but these reflect attentional deficits rather than being specifically due to dysfunction of the medial temporal lobe explicit memory system. Children with ADHD-CT may benefit from cognitive and behavioural strategies focused on improving encoding of relevant information rather than retrieval strategies.
