Effect of Attentional State on Frequency Discrimination: A Comparison of Children with ADHD on and off Medication

Autor/inn/en	Sutcliffe, Paul A.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Houghton, Stephen; Taylor, Myra
Titel	Effect of Attentional State on Frequency Discrimination: A Comparison of Children with ADHD on and off Medication
Quelle	In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49 (2006) 5, S.1072-1084 (13 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1092-4388
Schlagwörter	Stimulants; Auditory Discrimination; Attention Deficit Disorders; Hyperactivity; Attention Control; Auditory Perception; Reading Difficulties; Children; Outcomes of Treatment; Language Processing; Learning Disabilities; Attention Span; Drug Therapy; Comparative Analysis + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Droge; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; ADHS; Aufmerksamkeits-Defizit-Hyperaktivitäts-Störung; Aufmerksamkeitsstörung; Hyperaktivität; Aufmerksamkeitstest; Auditive Wahrnehmung; Akustische Wahrnehmung; Akustik; Reading difficulty; Leseschwierigkeit; Child; Kind; Kinder; Sprachverarbeitung; Learning handicap; Lernbehinderung
Abstract	Debate continues over the hypothesis that children with language or literacy difficulties have a genuine auditory processing deficit. Several recent studies have reported deficits in frequency discrimination (FD), but it is unclear whether these are genuine perceptual impairments or reflective of the comorbid attentional problems that exist in many children with language and literacy difficulties. The present study investigated FD in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when their attentional state was altered with stimulant medication. Auditory thresholds were obtained using FD and frequency modulation detection (FM) tasks. In the FD task, participants judged which of 2 pairs contained a high-low frequency sound, and in the FM task, children judged which of two tones "wobbled" (i.e., modulated). Children with ADHD had significantly poorer and more variable FD performance when off compared to on stimulant medication, and did significantly worse than controls on all FD runs when off but not on stimulant medication. However, children with ADHD did not differ from controls on the FM task. These findings demonstrate that certain auditory discrimination tasks are influenced by the child's attentional status. In addition, significant relationships between FD and measures of language and reading were abolished when comorbid attentional difficulties were taken into account. The study has implications for design and interpretation of studies investigating links between auditory discrimination and difficulties in language and literacy. (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10