Time perception characteristic in children with ADHD

To explore the characteristics of time perception of children with attention-deficit /hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD) and its relevant reasons by using a duration discrimination task. Methods: Totally 55 children with ADHD who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder，Fourth Edition ( DSM-Ⅳ) criteria，and hyperactivity index Z ≥ 1. 5 in Parent Symptom Questionnaire ( PSQ) and Teacher Rating Scale ( TRS) and 55 healthy controls matched with education，gender and age were selected. The Chinese Wechsler IntelligenceScale for Children ( C-WISC) ，Time Discrimination Task Test ( TDTT) ，Coirs Blocks Test ( CBT) ，and Sustained Attention to Response Test for Children ( C-SART) were used to test intelligence，difference threshold of time perception in 100 ms and 1000 ms separately，visual working memory span，omission error and commission error of sustained attention.Objective: To explore the characteristics of time perception of children with attention-deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its relevant reasons by using a duration discrimination task. Methods: Totally 55 children with ADHD who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder，Fourth Edition ( DSM-Ⅳ) criteria，and hyperactivity index Z ≥ 1. 5 in Parent Symptom Questionnaire ( PSQ) and Teacher Rating Scale ( TRS) and 55 healthy controls matched with education，gender and age were selected. The Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children ( C-WISC) ，Time Discrimination Task Test ( TDTT) ，Coirs Blocks Test ( CBT) ，and Sustained Attention to Response Test for Children ( C-SART) were used to test intelligence，difference threshold of time perception in 100 ms and 1000 ms separately，visual working memory span，omission error and commission error of sustained attention. Results: The children with ADHD scored lower in C-WISC Full Scale IQ( ( 97. 4 ± 11. 2) vs. ( 110. 3 ± 12. 1) ，P < 0. 01)，and had more omission error in C-SART (( 25. 5 ± 2. 4) vs. ( 14. 6 ± 2. 1) ，P < 0. 01) than in the controls. Under 100 ms condition， there was no significant difference between children with ADHD and controls，and under 1000 ms condition，children with ADHD showed higher discrimination thresholds than controls ( P < 0. 01) . After controlling Full Scale IQ in the children with ADHD under 1000 ms condition，discrimination thresholds were negatively correlated with the CBT scores ( r = - 0. 54，P < 0. 01) ，and positively correlated with the C-SART omission error and commission error ( r = 0. 47，P < 0. 01; r = 0. 44，P < 0. 01) . Conclusion: Children with ADHD may have perceptual deficits in time discrimination，which may be related with deficit of sustained attention and working memory