Defining the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Phenotype in Children

项目总结 拟议调查的总体目标，定义了迟缓的认知节奏表型 儿童，是仔细描绘与观察到的模式相关的独特行为表型 认知节奏减慢儿童的认知加工和行为功能特征 (SCT)。这项拟议的研究将首次将照顾者报告的SCT症状测量与 对认知减慢和相关并存进行仔细的行为评估，以便狭隘地定义 SCT表型。这项工作将为今后识别生物标志物(例如，结构和 儿童SCT结构的功能成像、遗传贡献) SCT的症状包括白日做梦，难以发起和持续努力，嗜睡，嗜睡，以及 体力活动不足，其核心症状--昏睡、活动不足和迟缓--明显与 多动症。尽管SCT与儿童和青少年的功能障碍有关，但这一功能性 影响反映了仅由照顾者评级定义的SCT；到目前为止，很少有工作检查关联 在SCT评分和基于表现的迟缓/迟缓的心理处理或反应测量之间 速度，到目前为止，还没有发表的作品仔细检查过Slowed的模式(例如，一致性 在SCT中的反应，以确定其区别于ADHD的变量反应模式。 尽管小儿麻痹症本身似乎在约2.5%的一般儿童人口中普遍存在，但据估计 与ADHD的共病从30%到60%不等。心理信息处理速度减慢，这是SCT的一个关键特征 构建，可以代表行为的“多表型”(即，构成超过 一种障碍)。因此，SCT不是一个新的精神病理学类别，但可能反映了一种维度结构 这在目前对注意力障碍或学习障碍的概念化中还没有被很好地捕捉到。它是 SCT的心理构成可能解释注意障碍之间的共病 和学习，可能在功能结果的预测中增加独特的差异，其遗传结构可能 解释了观察到的这些疾病之间的遗传相关性。 使用既包括引用子项又包括非引用子项的样本，我们打算1)狭义定义 儿童SCT行为表型的评定量表和基于表现的测量 强调运动速度、反应时间、命名速度、语言流利性、学术流利性以及不计时 智力和学术技能；2)表征SCT中反应时间的一致性 在ADHD中常见的变异性；以及3)检查行为定义的SCT与 ADHD、情绪症状和基于语言的学习障碍(即阅读障碍)。

PROJECT SUMMARY The overall goal of the proposed investigation, Defining the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Phenotype in Children, is to carefully delineate the unique behavioral phenotype associated with the observed pattern of slowed cognitive processing and behavioral functioning characteristic of children with sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT). The proposed study will be the first to combine caregiver-reported measures of SCT symptoms with careful behavioral assessment of cognitive slowing and associated comorbidities in order to narrowly define the SCT phenotype. This work will provide a basis for future identification of biomarkers (e.g., structural and functional imaging, genetic contributions) of the SCT construct in children SCT symptoms include daydreaming, difficulty initiating and sustaining effort, lethargy, drowsiness, and physical underactivity, with the core symptoms—lethargy, underactivity, and slowness—clearly separable from ADHD. Although SCT is associated with functional impairment in children and adolescents, this functional impact reflects SCT as defined only by caregiver ratings; little work to date has examined associations between ratings of SCT and performance-based measures of sluggish/slowed mental processing or response speed and none of the published work to date has carefully examined the pattern (e.g., consistency) of slowed responding in SCT, to determine its distinctiveness from the pattern of variable responding seen in ADHD. Although SCT by itself appears to be prevalent in ~2.5% of the general child population, estimates of comorbidity with ADHD range from 30-60%. Slowed processing of mental information, a key feature of the SCT construct, may represent a behavioral “polyphenotype” (i.e., a phenotype constituting core deficits of more than one disorder). As such, SCT is not a new category of psychopathology, but may reflect a dimensional construct that is not presently well-captured in the current conceptualization of attention or learning disorders. It is possible that the psychological makeup of SCT could account for comorbidity between disorders of attention and learning, may add unique variance in predictions of functional outcomes, and its genetic architecture could account for the observed genetic correlations between these disorders. Using a sample including both referred and non-referred children, we intend to 1) narrowly define the behavioral phenotype of SCT in children, using both rating scale and performance-based measures emphasizing motor speed, reaction time, naming speed, verbal fluency, academic fluency, as well as untimed intellectual and academic skills; 2) characterize the consistency of reaction time in SCT as contrasted with the variability commonly seen in ADHD; and 3) examine the associations among behaviorally defined SCT with ADHD, mood symptoms, and language-based learning disorders (i.e., dyslexia).