Perceptual and Motor Inhibition in Adolescents/Young Adults With Childhood-Diagnosed ADHD

Objective: This study examined perceptual and motor inhibition in a longitudinal sample of adolescents/young adults who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood, and as a function of the relative persistence of ADHD. Method: Ninety-eight participants diagnosed with ADHD in childhood were reevaluated approximately 10 years later. Eighty-five never-ADHD controls similar in age. IQ, sociodemographic background, and gender distribution served as a comparison group. Participants were administered a psychiatric interview and the Stimulus and Response Conflict Tasks (Nassauer & Halperin, 2003). Results: Participants with childhood ADHD demonstrated slower and less accurate responses to both control and conflict conditions relative to the comparison group, as well as more variable responses in both conditions of the motor inhibition task; there was no specific effect of childhood ADHD on perceptual or motor inhibition. ADHD persisters and partial remitters did not differ in overall accuracy, speed or variability in responding, but relative to partial remitters, persisters demonstrated greater slowing in response to perceptual conflict. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with theories positing state regulation, but not inhibitory control deficits in the etiology of ADHD, and suggest that improved perceptual inhibition may be associated with better outcome for ADHD.