De. Hollingsworth et al., Temporal allocation of visual attention in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, J COGN NEUR, 13(3), 2001, pp. 298-305
In two experiments, we examined the ability of adults with attention defici
t hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to process multiple targets appearing in a
rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream. Using a standard attentiona
l blink (AB) task, subjects were required to both identify a target in the
RSVP stream and detect a probe appearing in one of several posttarget seria
l positions. In Experiment 1, ADHD adults exhibited a protracted AB compare
d to controls, in that their probe detection did not improve as a function
of increasing probe-to-target intervals (450-720 msec). In Experiment 2, th
e ADHD group performed as well as controls in detecting probes appearing im
mediately (i.e., 90 msec) after the target. Taken together, the results dem
onstrate that adults with ADHD exhibit a selective deficit in rapidly shift
ing attention between the target and the probe, when the two appear several
hundred milliseconds apart. These results suggest that adults with ADHD ca
n use automatic (reflexive) attention to detect items in close temporal pro
ximity in the RSVP stream, but have difficulty allocating controlled attent
ion to multiple stimuli separated by several hundred milliseconds.