The Significance of Impulsive Error in Children With ADHD

A deficit of inhibition ability is a neuropsychological problem in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We investigated whether in children who made impulsive error (IE), less error-related negativity (ERN) would correlate with poorer executive attention functions (EAFs). Ninety children (49 with ADHD and 41 without ADHD) were investigated by a 4-minute simple reaction time task and simultaneous electroencephalogram. When they made IE, the ERN in response-locked event-related potential (ERP) was defined as error awareness. The average area under curve of ERN in the control group with IEs was used as the proper criterion for regrouping the children with ADHD into 2 groups: ADHD children with enough ERN (ADHD-enough ERN) and those with less ERN (ADHD-less ERN). EAFs from Comprehensive Nonverbal Attention Test were used as objective indices, and behavioral questionnaires were used as subjective indices and statistically analyzed within ADHD groups. Forty-eight percent of the childre...