We recently reported increased mind wandering (MW) frequency in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) relative to controls during high demands on sustained attention, reflecting deficient context regulation of MW. Studies on community samples previously linked context regulation of MW with attenuation in brain sensory processes, reflecting perceptual decoupling, and attentional processes during MW compared to task focus. However, the association between deficient context regulation of MW and these neural processes has not been studied in ADHD. We addressed this question by comparing adults with ADHD (N = 23) and controls (N = 25) on event-related potentials of early sensory processes (P1) and attention allocation (P3) during tasks manipulating cognitive demands (high vs low) on working memory and sustained attention, and during periods of MW and task focus measured through experience-sampling. Compared to controls, adults with ADHD showed reduced P1 during high sustained attention demands, as well as reduced P3 during high working memory demands. These group differences were no longer significant after adding MW frequency as a covariate. Across tasks, adults with ADHD showed no differences from controls on the P1 during MW episodes, but attenuated P1 during task focus. P3 was reduced in adults with ADHD compared to controls during MW, but not during task focus during the sustained attention task. These findings converge to indicate that impairments in early sensory processing in individuals with ADHD seem parallel to increased MW frequency and might reflect inefficient adjustments from periods of MW to task focus.

我们最近报道，与注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）的成年人相比，在持续关注的高要求期间，成年人的心理漫游（MW）频率增加，反映出对MW的上下文调节不足。社区样本的研究以前将MW的情境调节与大脑感觉过程的衰减联系在一起，反映了与任务重点相比MW期间的知觉去耦和注意过程。然而，在多动症中尚未研究MW的上下文调节不足与这些神经过程之间的关联。我们通过比较成人多动症（N = 23）和对照（N = 25）在处理认知需求（高或低）的任务期间早期感觉过程（P1）和注意力分配（P3）的事件相关电位来解决此问题。工作记忆和持续关注，在兆瓦级和任务重点期间，通过经验抽样来衡量。与对照组相比，患有多动症的成年人在持续的注意力需求旺盛时，P1降低，而在高的工作记忆需求时，P3降低。将MW频率作为协变量后，这些组差异不再显着。在所有任务中，患有ADHD的成年人在MW发作期间与P1的对照无差异，但在任务集中时减弱了P1。与MW对照组相比，ADHD成人的P3降低，而持续关注任务期间的任务集中则没有。这些发现表明，多动症患者早期感觉处理的损伤似乎与增加的兆瓦频率平行，并且可能反映了从兆瓦期到任务重点的无效调整。