Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the frontal lobe syndrome

The usefulness of frontal lobe (FL) dysfunction as a conceptual model for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was investigated. Twenty-four ADHD and 24 normal control (NC) children were tested using tasks sensitive to FL deficits in motor control and problem solving skills and memory tasks sensitive to temporal lobe (TL) dysfunction. ADHD children differed significantly from NCs on measures of FL function, but not on tests of TL functions. Wherever norms were available for normal children on the same FL tests, ADHD subjects performed like 6 to 7 year olds, in spite of their mean age of 10 years and minimum age of 8 years. The differential performance of ADHD children on tasks sensitive to FL and TL damage supports the conceptualization of ADHD deficits as analogous to FL dysfunction and implies that deficits are not explained by reference to generalized impairment