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Cited by 18Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesDevelopmental and Educational Neuropsychology

Neural processing of working memory in adults with ADHD in a visuospatial change detection task with distractors

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Gu, Chao, Liu, Zhong-Xu, Tannock, Rosemary, Woltering, Steven·2018·PeerJ
DOI 10.7717/peerj.5601PMC PMC6149497
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Abstract

Individuals with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are often characterized by deficits in working memory (WM), which manifest in academic, professional, and mental health difficulties. To better understand the underlying mechanisms of these presumed WM deficits, we compared adults with ADHD to their peers on behavioral and neural indices of WM. We used a visuospatial change detection task with distractors which was designed to assess the brain’s ability to effectively filter out distractors from WM, in addition to testing for effects of WM load. Twenty-seven unmedicated adults with ADHD were compared to 27 matched peers on event-related potential (ERP) measures of WM, i.e., the contralateral delay activity (CDA). Despite severe impairments in everyday life functioning, findings showed no difference in deficits in behavioral tests of working memory for adults with ADHD compared to their peers. Interestingly, there were differences in neural activity between individuals with ADHD and their peers showing that the CDA of individuals with ADHD did not distinguish between high, distractor, and low memory load conditions. These data suggest, in the face of comparable behavioral performance, a difference in neural processing efficiency, wherein the brains of individuals with ADHD may not be as selective in the allocation of neural resources to perform a WM task.

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  • Proposed mechanisms for working memory deficits in ADHD include altered neural activity in frontoparietal systems and reduced working memory task-specific brain activation.

    “Proposed mechanisms for working memory deficits in ADHD include altered neural activity in frontoparietal systems and reduced working memory task-specific brain activation.49 50”

    From Effectiveness of exercise for improving cognition, memory and executive function: a systematic umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [50]

    The Introduction (page not available) identifies altered activity in frontoparietal systems as a proposed contributor to ADHD-related working-memory problems. The Discussion reports less differentiation of neural activity between memory-load conditions in adults with ADHD, but does not establish a general reduction in working-memory-task-specific brain activation. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • ADHD-specific factors, such as differences in neural processing efficiency and potential dopamine dysregulation, may contribute to working memory deficits.

    “ADHD-specific factors, such as differences in neural processing efficiency and potential dopamine dysregulation, may contribute to working memory deficits.50 51”

    From Effectiveness of exercise for improving cognition, memory and executive function: a systematic umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [50]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) says that less efficient neural processing may explain visuospatial working-memory impairments in unstructured real-life situations. The study found comparable behavioral working-memory performance between groups, and our copy does not discuss dopamine dysregulation; that part of the claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.89)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Gu, C., Liu, Z.-X., Tannock, R., & Woltering, S.
Affiliations
  • Texas A&M University (US)
  • University of Toronto (CA)
Corresponding author
Woltering, Steven
ORCID
Venue
PeerJ
Publisher
PeerJ
Published
2018-09-18
Volume
6
Pages
e5601
ISSN
2167-8359 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.7717/peerj.5601
PMC
PMC6149497
OpenAlex
W2890507411
Cited by
18
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2
FWCI
0.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PeerJ (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • CIHR Operating Grant (# 245899)
  • Canada Research Chair program (RT)
  • College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
Keywords
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, working memory, adult ADHD, distractor filtering, memory load, contralateral delay activity, event-related potentials, neural resource allocation, behavioral performance

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