Executive function (EF) deficit is considered to be a core cognitive deficit in ADHD. The current study combined functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and numerical switching tasks to investigate the cognitive flexibility of adult ADHD as an important part of EF.
Material and Methods:
The Wender Utah Rating Scale and the adult ADHD self-rating scale were respectively used to assess ADHD symptoms in childhood and adulthood. A 22 adults with ADHD and 24 healthy controls (HCs) participated in the large/small and odd/even switching tasks.
Results:
Behavioral results were indicative of the ADHD switch costs being lower than the HCs. The fNIRS results also showed that ADHD’s frontal eye field was over-activated both in magnitude and switched judgment tasks. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was also over-activated in magnitude judgment tasks.
Conclusion:
These results revealed that adults with ADHD’s cognitive flexibility performed better than the HCs, which result is different from mainstream ideas that EF is a core deficit in ADHD.
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