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Cited by 339Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeuroscience and Music Perception

Timing deficits in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Evidence from neurocognitive and neuroimaging studies

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Noreika, Valdas, Falter, Christine M., Rubia, Katya·2013·Neuropsychologia
DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.09.036
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Abstract

Relatively recently, neurocognitive and neuroimaging studies have indicated that individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have deficits in a range of timing functions and their underlying neural networks. Despite this evidence, timing deficits in ADHD are still somewhat neglected in the literature and mostly omitted from reviews on ADHD. There is therefore a lack of integrative reviews on the up-to-date evidence on neurocognitive and neurofunctional deficits of timing in ADHD and their significance with respect to other behavioural and cognitive deficits. The present review provides a synthetic overview of the evidence for neurocognitive and neurofunctional deficits in ADHD in timing functions, and integrates this evidence with the cognitive neuroscience literature of the neural substrates of timing. The review demonstrates that ADHD patients are consistently impaired in three major timing domains, in motor timing, perceptual timing and temporal foresight, comprising several timeframes spanning milliseconds, seconds, minutes and longer intervals up to years. The most consistent impairments in ADHD are found in sensorimotor synchronisation, duration discrimination, reproduction and delay discounting. These neurocognitive findings of timing deficits in ADHD are furthermore supported by functional neuroimaging studies that show dysfunctions in the key inferior fronto-striato-cerebellar and fronto-parietal networks that mediate the timing functions. Although there is evidence that these timing functions are inter-correlated with other executive functions that are well established to be impaired in the disorder, in particular working memory, attention, and to a lesser degree inhibitory control, the key timing deficits appear to survive when these functions are controlled for, suggesting independent cognitive deficits in the temporal domain. There is furthermore strong evidence for an association between timing deficits and behavioural measures of impulsiveness and inattention, suggesting that timing problems are key to the clinical behavioural profile of ADHD. Emerging evidence shows that the most common treatment of ADHD with the dopamine agonist and psychostimulant Methylphenidate attenuates most timing deficits in ADHD and normalises the abnormally blunted recruitment of the underlying fronto-striato-cerebellar networks. Timing function deficits in ADHD, therefore, next to executive function deficits, form an independent impairment domain, and should receive more attention in neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and pharmacological basic research as well as in translational research aimed to develop pharmacological or non-pharmacological treatment of abnormal timing behaviour and cognition in ADHD.

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  • ADHD patients have deficits in temporal processing (motor timing, time estimation and temporal foresight), with most consistent deficits in time discrimination and estimation tasks.

    “as well as in temporal processing (i.e., motor timing, time estimation and temporal foresight), with most consistent deficits in time discrimination and estimation tasks (Rubia et al., 2009a; Noreika et al., 2013).”

    From Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Its Clinical Translation (2018) · cites this paper as Noreika et al., 2013

    The General discussion (page unavailable) reports ADHD-related deficits across motor timing, perceptual timing, and temporal foresight, and identifies duration discrimination among the most consistent deficits. However, §4.2.3 (page unavailable) explicitly says duration estimation studies did not yield consistent findings; it names discrimination, reproduction, and production instead. (LLM, conf=0.90)

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  • Impairment has been found in hot EF functions of motivation control and reward-related decision making, as measured in temporal discounting and gambling tasks, with more inconsistent findings.

    “However, impairment has also been found in so-called “hot” EF functions of motivation control and reward-related decision making, as measured in temporal discounting and gambling tasks, with, however, more inconsistent findings (Willcutt et al., 2008; Noreika et al., 2013; Plichta and Scheres, 2014).”

    From Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Its Clinical Translation (2018) · cites this paper as Noreika et al., 2013

  • Few studies have measured brain response to delay discounting tasks, which are impaired in ADHD, with also some negative findings.

    “Few studies have measured brain response to delay discounting tasks, which are impaired in ADHD, with, however, also some negative findings (Noreika et al., 2013).”

    From Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Its Clinical Translation (2018) · cites this paper as Noreika et al., 2013

  • ADHD is associated with inhibition, attention, working memory, and timing deficits.

    “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is associated with inhibition, attention, working memory (WM), and timing deficits 2, 3, 4, 5”

    From Effects of stimulants on brain function in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2014) · cites this paper as [5]

  • Accumulating evidence indicates that timing functions are impaired in ADHD, dyslexia, and autism.

    “accumulating evidence indicates that timing functions are impaired in a variety of developmental disorders including ADHD [32,33], dyslexia [34], and autism [35,36].”

    From The Conceptual and Methodological Mayhem of “Screen Time” (2020) · cites this paper as [33]

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. [30]30. Braitenberg, V., Onesto, N. (1962). The cerebellar cortex as a timing organ. In: Proceedings of the first international conference on medical cybernetics (pp. 1-19 ).
  2. [44]44. Cubillo, A., Halari, R., Smith, A., Taylor, E., & Rubia, K. (2012). Fronto-cortical and fronto-subcortical brain abnormalities in children and adults with ADHD: A review and evidence for fronto-striatal dysfunctions in adults with ADHD followed up from childhood during motivation and attention. Cortex, 48, 194-215.
  3. [142]142. Poeppel, E. (1978). Time perception. in: H. Autrum, W. R. Jung, W. R. Loewenstein, D. H. Mackay, & H. L. Teuber (Eds.), Handbook of sensory physiology, vol VIII (pp. 713-729). Springer.
  4. [172]172. Rubia, K., Smith, A. B., Brammer, M. J., Brian Toone, B., & Taylor, E. (2005). Medication-naı ¨ve adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder show abnormal brain activation during inhibition and error detection. Amer- ican Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 1067-1075.
  5. [178]178. Rubia, K., Halari, R., Cubillo, A., Mohammad, A.-M., Brammer, M., & Taylor, E. (2011a). Methylphenidate normalises fronto-striatal underactivation during interference inhibition in medication-naive boys. Neuropsychopharmacology, 36(8), 1575-1586.

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Authors
Noreika, V., Falter, C. M., & Rubia, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Turku (FI)
  • University of Groningen (NL)
  • King's College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Noreika, Valdas
ORCID
Venue
Neuropsychologia
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-01
Volume
51
Issue
2
Pages
235-266
ISSN
0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.09.036
OpenAlex
W2136109876
Semantic Scholar
91baa62bc9566578be57372069278ef520b7ae43
Cited by
339
References
246
Citations by year
2026: 23 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 2
FWCI
13.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
Funders
European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action on Time in Mental Activity (TIMELY, TD0904)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
Keywords
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, timing deficits, temporal processing, duration discrimination, delay discounting, frontoparietal network, executive function, working memory, impulsivity, inattention, methylphenidate, dopamine agonists
MeSH terms
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Perceptual Disorders, Time Perception, Neuroimaging

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