Interference control in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The view that Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with a diminished ability to control interfference is controversial and based exclusively on results of (verbal)-visual interference tasks, primarily the Stroop Color Word task. The present study compares medication-naïve children with ADHD (n∈=∈35 and n∈=∈51 in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) with normal controls (n∈=∈26 and n∈=∈32, respectively) on two interference tasks to assess interference control in both the auditory and the visual modality: an Auditory Stroop task and a Simon task. Both groups showed reliable but equal degrees of interference on both tasks, suggesting that children with ADHD do not differ from normal controls in their ability to control interference in either modality. © 2008 The Author(s)

Impact of altering proximity on snack food intake in individuals with high and low executive function: study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Despite attempts to improve diet at population level, people living in material and social deprivation continue to consume unhealthy diets. Executive function - the ability to regulate behaviour and resist impulses - is weaker in individuals living in deprivation. Dietary interventions that educate and persuade people to reflect on and actively change behaviour may therefore disproportionately benefit individuals who are socioeconomically advantaged and have stronger executive function, thus exacerbating inequalities in health resulting from unhealthy diets. In contrast, manipulating environmental cues, such as how far away a food is placed, does not appeal to reasoned action and is thought to operate largely outside of awareness to influence behaviour. People eat more of a food when it is placed closer to them, an effect seemingly robust to context, food quality and body-weight status. However, previous studies of this 'proximity effect' are limited by small samples consisting mainly of university staff or students, biased towards higher socio-economic position and therefore likely stronger executive function. This study aims to test the hypothesis that placing food further away from a person decreases intake of that food regardless of executive function. METHODS/DESIGN: 156 members of the general public, recruited from low and high socio-economic groups, will be randomised to one of two conditions varying in the proximity of a snack food relative to their position: 20 cm or 70 cm. Participants are told they will be taking part in a relaxation study - and are fully debriefed at the conclusion of the session. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants eating any amount of snack food and the secondary outcome is the mean amount eaten. Executive function is assessed using the Stroop task. DISCUSSION: The proposed study takes a novel step by investigating the effect of proximity on snack food intake in a general population sample consisting of those with high and low executive function, appropriately powered to detect the predicted proximity effect. If this effect occurs irrespective of executive function and socio-economic position, it may have potential to reduce inequalities patterned by socio-economic position if implemented in real-world settings such as shops or restaurants. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered with the ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN46995850 on 07 October 2015.This study is supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Sackler Prize, a doctoral training grant awarded to JAH. The study was also partially funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Program (Policy Research Unit in Behavior and Health [PR-UN-0409-10109]).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3184-

Default mode network connectivity distinguishes chemotherapy-treated breast cancer survivors from controls

Breast cancer (BC) chemotherapy is associated with cognitive changes including persistent deficits in some individuals. We tested the accuracy of default mode network (DMN) resting state functional connectivity patterns in discriminating chemotherapy treated (C+) from non–chemotherapy (C−) treated BC survivors and healthy controls (HC). We also examined the relationship between DMN connectivity patterns and cognitive function. Multivariate pattern analysis was used to classify 30 C+, 27 C−, and 24 HC, which showed significant accuracy for discriminating C+ from C− (91.23%, P < 0.0001) and C+ from HC (90.74%, P < 0.0001). The C− group did not differ significantly from HC (47.06%, P = 0.60). Lower subjective memory function was correlated (P < 0.002) with greater hyperplane distance (distance from the linear decision function that optimally separates the groups). Disrupted DMN connectivity may help explain long-term cognitive difficulties following BC chemotherapy