Executive Function in Children with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder

In recent years, deficit in executive function has been noted as a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previously, with the aim of quantitatively assessing the characteristics of children with ADHD from the viewpoint of inhibition among executive functions, we have considered behavioral and frontal brain functions with regard to inhibition vis a vis color word interference. In this study we also undertook additional collections of data at a number of facilities and investigated usefulness as a differential diagnosis aid. A total of 38 ADHD children and 46 typical developing children, matched in terms of age, gender, dominant arm and non-verbal intelligence, were the subject of analysis in this study. Utilising a Reverse Stroop Task (RST), we measured prefrontal area activity during task performance with near-infrared spectroscopy (OEG-16). Results were: 1) Behavioral results: in the RST, the ADHD children recorded a higher rate of interference than the TD children. 2) Brain activity: as regards brain activity during the RST, right lateral prefrontal activity was significantly lower in the ADHD children than in the TD children. These results suggest that RST results and changes in brain activity during task performance allow quantitative assessment of the clinical symptom of ADHD

Modulation effects of the intact motor skills on the relationship between social skills and motion perceptions in children with autism spectrum disorder : A pilot study

Background: An individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has social skill, motor skill, and motion perception deficits. However, the relationship among them was not clarified. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of motor skills on social skills and motion perception.Methods: Five typically developed children and fourteen children with ASD participated in our study. The N200 component, a brain activity indicating motion perception, was induced in mid-temporal (MT/V5) brain area by watching a random dot kine-matograph, and was recorded using a scalp electroencephalogram. Furthermore, the social responsiveness scale (SRS) indicating the social skill deficit, the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (DCDQ) estimating the developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and the movement assessment battery for children second edition (MABC-2) indicating motor skills were recorded in the children with ASD. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the modulation effects of motor skills on the relationship between social skills and motion perception. The dependent variable was the N200 latency, and the inde-pendent variables were SRS, MABC-2, and combined MABC-2 and SRS.Results: The N200 latency was more delayed in children with ASD relative that in typically developed children. Intact balance ability modulated the relationship between social skills and N200 latency in children with ASD. Within the high balance ability, when the social skills worsened, the N200 latency was shortened. Conclusions: This is the first report that intact motor skills could modulate the relationship between social skills and motion perception.(c) 2022 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Effect of anti-attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication on clinical seizures and sleep EEG : A retrospective study of Japanese children with ADHD

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Neuropsychopharmacology Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology.Aims: Patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often exhibit basic or paroxysmal wave abnormalities on electroencephalography (EEG). Methylphenidate (MPH), an anti-ADHD stimulant, has been reported to lower the seizure threshold. However, there have been no reports comparing EEG changes before and after administration of the central nervous system (CNS) stimulant MPH, or atomoxetine (ATX) hydrochloride, a non-CNS stimulant. In this study, we investigated changes in sleep EEG before and after the administration of ADHD treatment drugs. Method: With the approval of the ethics committee, the medical records of 28 children with ADHD (23 men and 5 women) who gave consent were retrospectively investigated. The appearance of sudden abnormal waves during a 10-minute sleep EEG recording was measured in 0.1-second units, and the duration of these waves was calculated as the paroxysmal index (PI). Results: Paroxysmal index did not differ significantly between patients who received MPH and those who received ATX. In addition, there were no exacerbations of clinical seizures. Conclusion: It was concluded that ADHD medications do not have an adverse effect on epileptic seizures or abnormal sleep EEGs.Peer reviewe

Clinical profile of reading ability and reading and writing achievement of children with borderline full-scale intellectual quotient : a prospective study

Background Poor reading ability is one of the common causes of low academic performance. In previous studies, children with dyslexia were found to demonstrate poor academic achievement due to poor reading ability. However, the relationship between academic achievement and reading ability in children with a borderline full-scale intellectual quotient (FSIQ) is unknown. This study aimed to clarify the clinical characteristics of children with borderline FSIQ and poor reading ability, and differentiate these characteristics from those of children with higher FSIQ and poor reading ability. Methods A total of 126 children (aged 6-15 years) identified as having low academic performance were enrolled. The reading ability of children was assessed through their performance on the hiragana (Japanese syllabary) reading task, while their reading and writing achievement was assessed through their reading and writing score on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition. Children were categorized into two groups based on their FSIQ score (FSIQ > 85 and 85 >= FSIQ >= 70). Reading ability in children was evaluated by referring to the linear relationship between FSIQ and the standard deviation value of reading tasks in typically developing children. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to examine clinical characteristics between higher and lower FSIQ groups. Associations between reading and writing achievement, reading ability, and ages of children were assessed using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients for the higher and lower FSIQ groups. Results Poorer reading and writing achievement was associated with poorer reading ability in the higher FSIQ group. Conversely, poorer reading and writing achievement and poor reading ability were associated with older age in the lower FSIQ group. Conclusions Poor reading and writing achievement were associated with older age, not with poor reading ability in the lower FSIQ group. Children with lower FSIQ need appropriate educational interventions based on independent assessments to further their academic achievement and reading ability. Moreover, they need more frequent evaluations of their academic achievement than do children with higher FSIQ and poor reading ability since they are more likely to be at a lower academic achievement level at an older age.Peer reviewe

Reduced Nogo-P3 in adults with developmental coordination disorder (DCD)

Nogo-N2 is associated with the premotor cognitive process that precedes motor response (e.g., conflict monitoring), whereas Nogo-P3 is related to the inhibition of the actual motor response. We examined the influence of motor clumsiness of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) on components of the event-related potential in a Go/Nogo task. Participants were healthy adults (N = 81) that were classified into control and DCD groups based on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition. We manipulated the difficulty in stopping a response by varying the frequency of Nogo stimuli in a response task into rare (20%) and frequent (80%) conditions, and Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 were calculated from electroencephalograms (EEGs) during the Go/Nogo tasks. The commission error rate in the rare condition was significantly higher in the DCD group than in the control group, indicating that motor clumsiness decreases task performance. There were no differences in Nogo-N2 between DCD and control groups. However, Nogo-P3 in the rare condition was reduced in the DCD group compared to the control group. These results suggest that the influence of motor clumsiness is limited to the cognitive process after the initiation of the actual motor response.Peer reviewe

Association between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction in Japanese adults : A cross‐sectional study

Recent studies have demonstrated that chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be associated with the progression of periodontal disease. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor for CKD. The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction in patients who had kidney failure with or without DM. One hundred sixty‐four patients with kidney dysfunction were enrolled (male: N = 105; female: N = 59), and the relationship between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction was analyzed in a cross‐sectional study. The subjects were divided into three groups: (a) patients with DM, (b) dialysis patients with nephropathy due to various kidney diseases, and (c) dialysis patient with nephropathy due to DM (diabetic nephropathy). Then, the effect of DM on the periodontal condition was analyzed. The patients were also stratified by CKD stage (into G1–G5) using the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and the G5 group was divided in patients with or without DM. Correlations between eGFR and parameters of periodontal condition were calculated in patients from G1 to G4. The number of missing teeth was significantly higher in dialysis patients with diabetic nephropathy than in patients with DM, whereas alveolar bone loss did not show a significant difference among the three groups. In addition, the G5 patients with DM had a significantly higher number of missing teeth than the other CKD groups, whereas alveolar bone loss did not show a significant difference. In G5 patients with DM, Community Periodontal Index and Oral Hygiene Index scores were significantly higher than in G1‐4 patients with DM. There was a significant negative correlation between eGFR and the number of missing teeth. Patients with diabetic nephropathy have a higher rate of periodontal problems such as missing teeth in Japanese adults

Detection of deviance in Japanese kanji compound words

Reading fluency is based on the automatic visual recognition of words. As a manifestation of the automatic processing of words, an automatic deviance detection of visual word stimuli can be observed in the early stages of visual recognition. To clarify whether this phenomenon occurs with Japanese kanji compounds-since their lexicality is related to semantic association-we investigated the brain response by utilizing three types of deviants: differences in font type, lexically correct or incorrect Japanese kanji compound words and pseudo-kanji characters modified from correct and incorrect compounds. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to evaluate the spatiotemporal profiles of the related brain regions. The study included 22 adult native Japanese speakers (16 females). The abovementioned three kinds of stimuli containing 20% deviants were presented during the MEG measurement. Activity in the occipital pole region of the brain was observed upon the detection of font-type deviance within 250 ms of stimulus onset. Although no significant activity upon detecting lexically correct/incorrect kanji compounds or pseudo-kanji character deviations was observed, the activity in the posterior transverse region of the collateral sulcus (pCoS)-which is a fusiform neighboring area-was larger when detecting lexically correct kanji compounds than when detecting pseudo-kanji characters. Taken together, these results support the notion that the automatic detection of deviance in kanji compounds may be limited to a low-level feature, such as the stimulus stroke thickness.Peer reviewe