Temporal information processing in ADHD: Findings to date and new methods

There is substantial heterogeneity among identified cognitive domains, leading to variable characterizations of ADHD as a predominant disorder of inhibition, delay aversion, or temporal processing.

“However, this is countered by substantial heterogeneity among the identified domains, leading to variable characterizations of ADHD as a predominant disorder of inhibition (e.g. [13]), delay aversion [14] or temporal processing [15], among others (e.g. [16]).”

Regions such as the prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia all appear to be involved in temporal information processing.

“Whether specific neuromodulator systems are involved in temporal information processing remains to be determined, but regions such as the prefrontal cortex, the cerebellum, and the basal ganglia all appear to be involved (reviewed in [15]).”

Several non-mutually exclusive hypotheses about reaction time variability in ADHD have been proposed, including temporal processing deficit, low-frequency neuronal modulation deficit, executive attention deployment inefficiency, sustained attention deficit, and energetic state regulation difficulties.

“Hypotheses emphasizing several factors have been proposed: a temporal processing deficit [34], a deficit in the ability to appropriately modulate very low-frequency fluctuations in neuronal activity [35], inefficiency in the deployment of attention by executive control processes [36], deficit of sustained attention [10,32], and difficulties with the regulation of energetic state [14,[37][38][39].”

Time management and estimation of task duration differ between individuals diagnosed with ADHD and control groups, in both adulthood and childhood, as reflected in studies assessing estimation of short periods during psychological tests.

“Time management and the estimation of the likely duration of tasks differ among the users diagnosed with ADHD and those belonging to the control group, both in adulthood and in childhood. This difference has been reflected in many studies, especially by assessing the estimation of the length of short periods of time while performing specific psychological tests [10,11,12,13,14,15].”