Introduction: Performance on executive function (EF) tasks is only modestly predictive of a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), despite the common assumption that EF deficits are ubiquitous to the disorder. The current study sought to determine whether ex-Gaussian parameters of simple reaction time are better able to discriminate between children and adults with and without ADHD, compared with traditional measures of inhibitory control. Methods: Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to examine the ability of performance on two commonly used tasks of inhibitory control (i.e. stop signal reaction time (SSRT) and go-no-go tasks) to predict ADHD status in preschool (N = 108), middle childhood (N = 309), and young adulthood (N = 133). Results: Across all samples, SSRT, go-no-go percentage of failed inhibits, and standard deviation of reaction (SDRT) time to “go” trials, all successfully discriminated between individuals with and without ADHD. Ex-Gaussian decomposition of the RT distribution indicated that both larger tau and larger sigma drove findings for SDRT. Contrary to predictions, traditional measures of inhibitory control were equal if not better predictors of ADHD status than ex-Gaussian parameters. Conclusions: Findings support ongoing work to quantify the separate contributions of cognitive subprocesses that drive task performance, which in turn is critical to developing and improving process-based approaches in clinical assessment.

中文翻译：

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领先 (ROC) 曲线：利用反应时间的高斯参数诊断跨三个发育时期的 ADHD 的统计方法

简介：执行功能 (EF) 任务的表现只能适度预测注意力缺陷多动障碍 (ADHD) 的诊断，尽管人们普遍认为 EF 缺陷在该疾病中普遍存在。目前的研究试图确定与传统的抑制控制措施相比，简单反应时间的前高斯参数是否能够更好地区分患有或不患有多动症的儿童和成人。方法：使用受试者工作特征（ROC）分析和曲线下面积（AUC）来检查两种常用的抑制控制任务（即停止信号反应时间（SSRT）和“继续”任务）的表现能力）预测学龄前儿童多动症（ADHD）状态（氮= 108），童年中期（氮= 309）和青年期（氮= 133）。结果：在所有样本中，SSRT、抑制失败的“继续”百分比以及“开始”试验的反应标准差 (SDRT) 时间，所有这些都成功区分了患有和不患有 ADHD 的个体。RT 分布的前高斯分解表明，较大的 tau 和较大的 sigma 驱动了 SDRT 的发现。与预测相反，传统的抑制控制措施与前高斯参数相比，即使不是更好的 ADHD 状态预测指标，也是相同的。结论：研究结果支持正在进行的量化驱动任务绩效的认知子过程的单独贡献的工作，这反过来对于开发和改进临床评估中基于过程的方法至关重要。