Onze beursstudenten

Alexandra RUSSAROLLO

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Onderzoek in het kort !

Project

Impact of mind wandering and cognitive fatigue on decision making in children with ADHD

Project supervisor

Pr. Dr. Aeby Alec (HUDERF)
Pr. Dr. De Tiege Xavier (Hopital Erasme)
Pr. Dr. Slama Hichem (Hopital Erasme)

Labo of hospitaal waar het project plaatsvindt

Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et de Neuroimagerie translationnelles (LN2T) & Equipe de Neuropsychologie et Logopedie
Hopital Erasme, UlB

Objectives of research

This project aims to understand the impact of ADHD on mind wandering and cognitive fatigue as well as their respective influence on decision making processes in a pediatric population. Specifically, this research project aims to clarify the impact of mind wandering and cognitive fatigue on decision making in children with ADHD aged 7 to 12, compared to TDC, both at the cognitive and neurophysiological level, using MEG. A better knowledge of the role of mind wandering and cognitive fatigue on decision making will improve fundamental knowledge on ADHD, will support the development of new diagnosis tools and will also potentially improve the care and rehabilitation offered to children with this disorder.

Summary

Attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) is one of the most frequent neurodevelopmental disorders in school-age children, affecting approximately 3-7% of them.

Children with ADHD display variable cognitive alterations mainly characterized by attentional difficulties. Specifically, children with ADHD present difficulties in maintaining an efficient attention over a long period of time) that translate into a greater variability in reaction times (RT) compared to typically developing children (TDC). RT variability has been identified as one of the core characteristics of the disorder.

Maintaining attention over time is conceptually linked to mind wandering and cognitive fatigue, which are still little studied in ADHD. Besides attentional functions, decision making also relates to RT variability and has been described as deficient in ADHD (i.e., inefficient, insufficiently reflective, and inconsistent) and impulsive (biased toward immediate over delayed alternatives).

However, despite clear alterations in decision making and control of attention over time in ADHD, few studies investigate the impact of mind wandering and cognitive fatigue on decision making in children with ADHD, as well as concerning the neurophysiological mechanisms associated with these cognitive processes. The goal of this project is to investigate these aspects in a clinical sample of children with ADHD aged 7 to 12, compared to TDC, both at the cognitive and neurophysiological level using specific cognitive paradigms, RT analyses and magnetoencephalography (MEG).

A better knowledge of the role of mind wandering and cognitive fatigue on decision making will improve fundamental knowledge on ADHD, will support the development of new diagnosis tools and will also potentially improve the care and rehabilitation offered to children with this disorder.