ABSTRACT

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) describes a pattern of under-activity, poor initiation, and slowness. It was first reported within the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) literature and found to be positively associated with the inattentive symptoms of ADHD and negatively or not significantly associated with the hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms of ADHD. SCT has since been considered applicable to the pediatric oncology population given the emergence of inattentive, sluggish symptoms secondary to cancer treatment. The present study examined the unique contribution of SCT to various processing speed skills in a clinical sample of pediatric brain tumor (BT) survivors in order to determine the degree to which SCT explained timed “cognitive” processing components. Measures included speeded naming, graphomotor speed, and speeded inhibition. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to predict performance-based measures of processing speed. After controlling for verbal ability and inattention, SCT, particularly Daydreamy SCT (β = −0.698, p = 0.023), explained 28% of variance in speeded inhibition. SCT did not add significantly to the prediction of speeded naming or graphomotor speed. Findings suggest that the “daydreamy” aspect of SCT, rather than “sluggishness” per se, may be related to more complex, cognitively-demanding tasks with greater executive functioning burdens in BT survivors. Implications for intervention for oncology survivors as well as future research directions are discussed.

摘要

缓慢的认知节奏 (SCT) 描述了一种活动不足、启动不良和缓慢的模式。它首次在注意力缺陷多动障碍 (ADHD) 文献中报道，发现与 ADHD 的注意力不集中症状呈正相关，与 ADHD 的多动/冲动症状呈负相关或不显着相关。鉴于癌症治疗后出现的注意力不集中、反应迟钝的症状，SCT 被认为适用于儿科肿瘤患者。本研究在儿童脑肿瘤 (BT) 幸存者的临床样本中检查了 SCT 对各种处理速度技能的独特贡献，以确定 SCT 解释定时“认知”处理组件的程度。措施包括加速命名、图形马达速度和加速抑制。分层线性回归分析用于预测基于性能的处理速度测量。在控制语言能力和注意力不集中后，SCT，尤其是 Daydreamy SCT (β  = -0.698, p = 0.023)，解释了加速抑制中 28% 的差异。SCT 没有显着增加对加速命名或图形运动速度的预测。研究结果表明，SCT 的“白日梦”方面，而不是“呆滞”本身，可能与更复杂、认知要求更高的任务有关，BT 幸存者的执行功能负担更大。讨论了对肿瘤幸存者进行干预的意义以及未来的研究方向。