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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1477581

The Attention Network Characteristics of Adults with High ADHD traits: Low Stability, Boost Accuracy by Sacrificing Response Time

Provisionally accepted
Jie Xiang Jie Xiang 1Xueke Wang Xueke Wang 1Tingyong Feng Tingyong Feng 1,2*
  • 1 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing Municipality, China
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Adults with high ADHD traits (H-ADHD) face challenges in academics, social interactions, and careers, yet their attention characteristics remains unclear. Using Attention Network Test (ANT), we examine attentional characteristics (including specific attentional qualities and overall attentional performance) of H-ADHD and explore how their specific attentional qualities impact overall attentional performance. We find H-ADHD primarily manifests lower alerting network, higher intraindividual coefficient of variation (ICV) and poorer balanced integration score (BIS). These results remain stable even after controlling for covariates such as anxiety and depression scores. Furthermore, the BIS deficiency in high attention deficit traits group (H-ADHD-I) specifically manifests as "high accuracy -slow reaction time", reflecting their response pattern as the reaction time compensated accuracy. Additionally, compared to alerting network, attentional variability (ICV) has a greater role in mediating the impact of ADHD symptoms on overall attentional performance (BIS). Taken together, H-ADHD mainly exhibit deficits in sustained attention (alerting network), attentional stability (ICV), and overall attentional performance. ADHD symptoms worsen overall attentional performance due to increased attentional variability. The study emphasizes the sensitivity of alerting network, ICV, and BIS indicators, and highlights the significance of attentional variability, suggesting their potential clinical value in the future.

    Keywords: High ADHD traits, Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS), Attention Network Test (ANT), Intra-individual Coefficient of Variation (ICV), Balanced Integration Score (BIS)

    Received: 08 Aug 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xiang, Wang and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tingyong Feng, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, 400715, Chongqing Municipality, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.