Fluctuations of attention in patients with attention-deficit disorders (ADD)

Abstract

This study was the first to analyze parameters of intraindividual variability in patients with ADD and controls aged seven to 14 years in a Continuous Performance Test (CPT), a Go/No-Go task (GNA), a stop-signal task (SSA), and an N-back working-memory task (NBA). We calculated various parameters of central tendency, dispersion, and shape of reaction-time distributions as well as omission and commission errors. Group comparisons yielded the clearest effect sizes for measures of dispersion. Group differences in location and error measures were substantially reduced after controlling for intraindividual variability (ISV).