Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Neurosciences

Department

Interdisciplinary Neuroscience

First Advisor

Vanessa Harwood

Abstract

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widespread psychological disorder in children, poorly impacting executive functioning domains of inhibitory control and working memory. Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide neuroelectric insight into these cognitive processes. However, most ERP research focuses on one task type, limiting direct comparisons of cognitive demands across different task paradigms. This study examined P3 amplitude and latency in ADHD children using a visual NoGo task (response inhibition) and an auditory oddball task (working memory), and associations between the P3 ERP and behavioral measures of executive functions.

Cross-sectional data of symptomatic ADHD children (N=13; F=5; aged 9.15 ± 1.86 years) were collected. Assessments included parent-reported executive function (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function [BRIEF]: inhibition and working memory t-scores), neuroelectric function via P3 ERP (peak amplitude and latency) on the visual NoGo and auditory oddball task. The P3 component was extracted from a 10-electrode cluster in the central-parietal region at 300 to 650 ms. Paired-sample t-tests compared P3 amplitude and latency of standard and deviant stimuli between visual NoGo and auditory oddball tasks. Pearson correlations examined relationships between BRIEF subscale scores with ERP measures of amplitude and latency.

P3 peak amplitude was significantly higher in the auditory oddball task than in the visual NoGo task for both standard (auditory: 4.87 µV ± 3.65; visual: 2.08 µV ± 1.21; p = .012) and deviant stimuli (auditory: 6.64 µV ± 4.58; visual: 2.37 µV ± 2.28; p = .010). No significant differences were found in peak latency across modalities. A significant positive correlation was found between visual standard P3 latency and BRIEF working memory t-scores (r = .67, p = .013), suggesting that longer neural processing times were associated with greater parent-reported working memory difficulties. No other significant correlations emerged between BRIEF scores and ERP measures.

Preliminary findings from the present thesis suggest that auditory stimuli elicit stronger P3 amplitudes than visual stimuli in children with ADHD. These results may reflect enhanced complexity or deeper phonological engagement in the auditory oddball task. The positive correlation between P3 latency and working memory scores indicates an association between delayed processing and executive function challenges. Future studies should replicate these findings with larger, more diverse samples and include neurotypical comparison groups to further clarify modality-specific neural responses in ADHD.

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