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“Turning down the heat”: is poor performance of children with ADHD on tasks tapping “hot” emotional regulation caused by deficits in “cool” executive functions?

“Turning down the heat”: is poor performance of children with ADHD on tasks tapping “hot” emotional regulation caused by deficits in “cool” executive functions?
“Turning down the heat”: is poor performance of children with ADHD on tasks tapping “hot” emotional regulation caused by deficits in “cool” executive functions?
Emotional dysregulation in daily life is very common in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is however not clear whether this reflects a specific deficit or that it may be the result of generic executive function (EF) deficits. The current study addresses this question by means of an emotional working memory (WM) task with 2 memory load conditions and four possible backgrounds (blank screen, neutral, positive or negative picture), which was administered to 38 typically developing children and 29 children with ADHD. Children responded slower on trials when negative pictures were presented at the background versus when neutral pictures were presented, indicating an emotional interference effect; however crucially, groups did not differ in this respect. Reaction times were also slower on trials with a neutral picture as background versus trials without a picture, with children with ADHD showing an enhanced interference effect. There was a main effect of WM load on performance, but it did not interact with interference or group effects. To summarize, the findings indicate a generic interference control deficit in the children with ADHD in the current sample, while they could not provide support for an emotional interference deficit.
ADHD, emotion regulation, interference control, children
0891-4222
199-207
Van Cauwenberge, Valerie
d1dd437e-2afd-401f-80ba-315ba98775f4
Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J.S.
bc80bf95-6cf9-4c76-a09d-eaaf0b717635
Hoppenbrouwers, Karel
1f4e271f-f557-41cf-96c0-dccc8dc70dab
Van Leeuwen, Karla
3067f667-17bc-4e0e-b11b-c80a068f0e97
Wiersema, Jan R.
cc91556a-6a9f-4079-b0b8-502bd729b936
Van Cauwenberge, Valerie
d1dd437e-2afd-401f-80ba-315ba98775f4
Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J.S.
bc80bf95-6cf9-4c76-a09d-eaaf0b717635
Hoppenbrouwers, Karel
1f4e271f-f557-41cf-96c0-dccc8dc70dab
Van Leeuwen, Karla
3067f667-17bc-4e0e-b11b-c80a068f0e97
Wiersema, Jan R.
cc91556a-6a9f-4079-b0b8-502bd729b936

Van Cauwenberge, Valerie, Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J.S., Hoppenbrouwers, Karel, Van Leeuwen, Karla and Wiersema, Jan R. (2015) “Turning down the heat”: is poor performance of children with ADHD on tasks tapping “hot” emotional regulation caused by deficits in “cool” executive functions? Research in Developmental Disabilities, 47, 199-207. (doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.09.012). (PMID:26444927)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Emotional dysregulation in daily life is very common in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is however not clear whether this reflects a specific deficit or that it may be the result of generic executive function (EF) deficits. The current study addresses this question by means of an emotional working memory (WM) task with 2 memory load conditions and four possible backgrounds (blank screen, neutral, positive or negative picture), which was administered to 38 typically developing children and 29 children with ADHD. Children responded slower on trials when negative pictures were presented at the background versus when neutral pictures were presented, indicating an emotional interference effect; however crucially, groups did not differ in this respect. Reaction times were also slower on trials with a neutral picture as background versus trials without a picture, with children with ADHD showing an enhanced interference effect. There was a main effect of WM load on performance, but it did not interact with interference or group effects. To summarize, the findings indicate a generic interference control deficit in the children with ADHD in the current sample, while they could not provide support for an emotional interference deficit.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 14 September 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 14 October 2015
Published date: December 2015
Keywords: ADHD, emotion regulation, interference control, children
Organisations: Clinical Neuroscience

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 385986
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/385986
ISSN: 0891-4222
PURE UUID: 11d755a8-ce09-48fe-ad88-c82df5bdc61a

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Date deposited: 27 Jan 2016 10:16
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:25

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Contributors

Author: Valerie Van Cauwenberge
Author: Edmund J.S. Sonuga-Barke
Author: Karel Hoppenbrouwers
Author: Karla Van Leeuwen
Author: Jan R. Wiersema

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