It is common to find that individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) produce more variable responses when performing cognitive tasks. The neural mechanism associated with heightened response time variability (RTV) is not well understood in ADHD nor in typically developing individuals. One potential mechanism that might be associated with increased RTV is functional connectivity of the brain, and specifically inefficient connections. This study examined the relationships among functional connectivity of the brain, RTV, and levels of ADHD symptoms, using a cross-sectional developmental design. Twenty children aged 9-12 years and 49 adolescents aged 15-18 years completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task with flanker interference while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. The Conners 3 questionnaire was used to measure the participants' levels of ADHD symptoms. Parameters reflecting different aspects of RTV were computed using ex-Gaussian and fast Fourier transform techniques. Functional connectivity between 64 electrodes was computed for the task period, and global efficiency reflecting functional integration and modularity reflecting strength of functional segregation were computed. Greater global efficiency in the theta band was associated with decreased RTV. Increased integration during the task may help to combine information more efficiently and produce stable responses. When congruent flankers were present, children with greater modularity in the beta band showed greater tau, which is thought to reflect attentional lapses. This association was not observed when incongruent flankers were present. Brains with increased strength of segregated activity might be more prone to attentional lapses, especially during simpler tasks.

中文翻译：

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脑的整合和隔离与注意力不集中和冲动水平各异的儿童和青少年的表现稳定性有关。

常见的发现患有注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）的人在执行认知任务时会产生更多的可变反应。在ADHD中或在典型的发育个体中，与提高的反应时间可变性（RTV）相关的神经机制还没有被很好地理解。可能与RTV增加相关的一种潜在机制是大脑的功能连通性，尤其是效率低下的连接。这项研究使用横断面发育设计研究了大脑功能连通性，RTV和ADHD症状水平之间的关系。记录脑电图（EEG）的同时，有20名9-12岁的儿童和49名15-18岁的青少年通过侧翼干扰完成了对注意力的持续关注。Conners 3问卷用于测量参与者的ADHD症状水平。使用前高斯和快速傅立叶变换技术计算了反映RTV不同方面的参数。在任务期间计算了64个电极之间的功能连接性，并计算了反映功能集成的整体效率和反映功能隔离强度的模块性。Theta波段更高的全球效率与RTV下降有关。在任务期间增加集成度可能有助于更有效地合并信息并产生稳定的响应。当存在一致的侧翼时，β带中模块化程度更高的儿童显示出更大的tau，这被认为反映了注意力的下降。当存在不一致的侧翼时，未观察到这种关联。