The effects of sleep on three types of attention in children with and without ADHD

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The effects of sleep on three types of attention
in children with and without ADHD

• Jenna Bower,BSc
• October 23rd, 2006
• Supervisors Dr. Penny Corkum Jennifer Mullane,
  MA

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Sleep and Attention

• Huge volume on sleep and attention in adults
• In adults, most consistent finding, vigilance/
  sustained attention affected
• One model of attention that includes sustained
  attention is by Posner and Peterson (1990)
• - 3 large scale neural networks
• alerting (sustained), orienting (automatic
  capture of attention), executive (interference
  control)
• University Students with reduced sleep
• Poorer performance on measures of alerting and
  orienting Versace, Cavallero, De Min Tona,
  Mozzato Stegagno (2006)

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Sleep and Attention

• Much less research on sleep and attention in
  children
• Children with fragmented sleep
• Poorer performance on tasks of sustained
  attention and behavioral inhibition Sadeh, Gruber
  Raviv (2002)
• Children with sleep duration reduced on average
  of 41 min
• Poorer performance on simple RT task and
  sustained attention task Sadeh, Gruber Raviv
  (2003)
• Children with mild sleep disturbances
• Poorer performance on tasks of sustained and
  selective attention Kheirandish Gozal (2006)

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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• One grp of kids attention and sleep problems
  ADHD
• One of most common childhood mental health
  disorders
• Occurs in 3 to 5 of children
• Characterized by inattention, hyperactivity,
  impulsiveness
• Onset before 7 yrs
• Impaired functioning in 2 settings

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Sleep and ADHD

• Clinically, children with ADHD have been observed
  to have a variety of sleep problems
• But may be related to comorbidities or stimulant
  medication treatment
• Corkum, Tannock Moldofsky (1998)
• Corkum, Moldofsky, Hogg-Johnson, Humphries
  Tannock (1999)
• Regardless of the cause of sleep problems, one
  study found that children with ADHD had higher
  daytime sleepines.
• Cortese, Konofal, Yateman, Mouren Lecendreux
  (2006)

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Sleep, Attention, ADHD

• Limited research
• Gruber Sadeh, 2003
• Increased sleep duration, quality of sleep,
  reduced variability of sleep ? better performance
  on complex cognitive tasks (including test of
  sustained attention)
• BUT only in controls
• Authors suggest that the wide variability in
  sleep parameters in the ADHD group may have
  caused the ns relationship
• Subtype of ADHD not examined, females not
  included

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Current Study

• Goal To further examine sleep in children with
  and without ADHD using new test of three kinds of
  attention
• Pilot Study, examine sleep using selected scores
  from the Childrens Sleep Habits Questionnaire
  (CSHQ)
• Reported hours of sleep on the night prior to
  taking the ANT
• Hypotheses
• Sleep problems, as measured by CSHQ will be
  associated with poorer performance on the ANT in
  typically developing children
• Sleep will affect alerting and orienting
  attention in controls
• Presently unclear for ADHD

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Participants Methods

• 50 ADHD (DSM-IV), 50 normal controls
• Matched on age and gender
• ADHD recruited through Colchester Regional
  Hospitals ADHD clinic a private practice in
  Bedford
• Controls recruited through Chignecto Central
  Regional School Board
• Age 6-12 yrs
• CPRS, IQ, Academic Achievement

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Attention Network Test
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Childrens Sleep Habits Questionnaire

• 45 item parent-report questionnaire
• - sleep habits in the past week
• - Test-retest reliability r 0.62 to
  0.79 adequate validity estimates
• Provides several scores For our study
• Total Sleep Problems
• Sleep Duration
• Daytime sleepiness
• Also asked parents to report hours of sleep of
  child on night prior to ANT

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Procedure

• ADHD off medication min 24 hrs
• Tested individually (weekends)
• Attention Network Test (ANT)
• At the same time parents completed Childrens
  Sleep Habits (CSHQ) and Conners

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Data Analysis

• ANCOVA (with age as covariate)
• ADHD vs NC on 4 sleep variables
• Partial correlation analyses (age removed)
• RT and accuracy of 3 networks of ANT
• 4 Sleep variables

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Implications

• Gain more information on effect of sleep on
  attention in children with and without ADHD
• Possibly clarify the results of Gruber and
  Sadehs study that found that increased
  variability in ADHD group ? n.s. results
• Gather information to determine if the ANT is
  useful for examining the daytime attentional
  functioning of children with ADHD and sleep
  problems

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Questions?