Effect of financial and non-financial reward and punishment for inhibitory control in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: The development of inhibitory processes is disturbed in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, little is known about the effect of negative punishment for inhibitory performance in this population. AIMS: We investigated differences in the effects of reward and punishment, developmental changes, and response inhibition between children with and without ADHD, using financial (F-FB) and non-financial (NF-FB) feedback. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We conducted financial and non-financial go/no-go tasks under reward and punishment conditions with 21 boys with ADHD and 21 healthy controls (HCs), in Japan. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: We found group-related significant interactions between group, feedback type, and punishment (p = .013), and group, feedback type, and age (p = .009). There were significant differences in inhibitory error under F-FB only in HCs between the punishment-absent and punishment-present conditions (p = .003). In the ADHD group, age-dependent effects were found for both feedback types (ps < .01), but only F-FB effects were found in HCs (p = .008). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Punishment for inhibitory control had different effects on the ADHD and HC groups. Children with ADHD respond differently to external motivation than HCs, leading to difficulties with peers or confusion among teachers and caregivers.

The effect of ADHD and ASD symptoms on the mental health of college students: a longitudinal study conducted in Japan.

Objective: Developmental disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are some of the biggest contributors to mental health problems. However, it is not well known whether and how experiencing ADHD- or ASD-related symptoms can cause mental illness later in life. Participants: The sample initially included 124 college students, and 54 completed the study (Mage = 21.9 ± 2.8). Methods: In this study, a longitudinal survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between current ADHD- and ASD-related symptoms and later mental distress in college students. Participants answered the same questionnaire on two occasions, at an interval of approximately 8.5 months. Results: The results suggested that experiencing hyperactivity-impulsivity at this point in life causes later psychiatric illness. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of early assessments and providing support for college students with ADHD-related symptoms, especially hyperactivity-impulsivity.

Asymmetric developmental change regarding the effect of reward and punishment on response inhibition.

Reward and punishment influence inhibitory performance, but developmental changes in these effects are not well understood. Our aim was to understand the effects of potential reward gains and losses (as indices of reward and punishment) on response inhibition among children and adolescents. We conducted financial and non-financial go/no-go tasks with 40 boys (8- to 15-year-olds). Participants gained or lost money depending on their performance on the financial task, and score rankings were compared to participants on the non-financial task. We found that adolescents' inhibitory control, as reflected in their reaction times when they made inhibitory errors, was lower in the reward-present condition than in the reward-absent condition, although accuracy was higher when the reward was available for all participants. Additionally, inhibitory control, specifically among adolescents, was higher for financial feedback than for non-financial feedback. These results suggest that the effects of reward and feedback type on motor impulsivity differ as a function of developmental stage. We discuss the theoretical implications of the present findings in terms of the interaction between emotional feedback and response inhibition among children and adolescents.

Biases in Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Japan.

Recent research has shown high rates of comorbidity between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and difficulties regarding differential diagnosis. Unlike those in Western countries, the Japanese ADHD prevalence rate is lower relative to that of ASD. This inconsistency could have occurred because of cultural diversities among professionals such as physicians. However, little is known about attitudes toward ADHD and ASD in non-Western cultural contexts. We conducted two experiments to identify biases in ASD and ADHD assessment. In Study 1, we examined attitudes toward these disorders in medical doctors and mental health professionals, using a web-based questionnaire. In Study 2, medical doctors and clinical psychologists assessed four fictional cases based on criteria for ADHD, ASD, oppositional defiant disorder, and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED). Diagnosis of ASD was considered more difficult relative to that of ADHD. Most participants assessed the fictional DSED case as ASD, rather than DSED or ADHD. The results provide evidence that Japanese professionals are more likely to attribute children's behavioral problems to ASD, relative to other disorders. Therefore, Japanese therapists could be more sensitive to and likely to diagnose ASD, relative to therapists in other countries. These findings suggest that cultural biases could influence clinicians' diagnosis of ADHD and ASD.