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Bellato, Alessio (2020) An investigation of autonomic arousal and attentional mechanisms in children with ADHD and Autism. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

The present doctoral project was aimed at investigating the impact of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on measures of physiological arousal, alerting/vigilance, attention orienting and executive functions. 106 children between 7 and 15 years of age (31 typically developing; 24 ADHD-only; 18 ASD-only; 33 ADHD&ASD) performed a battery of eye-tracking and EEG experimental paradigms, while parent-reported measures were used to evaluate the severity of symptoms of ASD, ADHD and other psychiatric conditions.

Children with clinical diagnoses of ADHD and ASD showed condition-specific signs of dysregulated physiological arousal and vigilance, with ADHD more likely to be associated with difficulties in up-regulating and maintaining an optimal level of vigilance to the environment, and ASD more associated with over-reactivity to sensory information and difficulties in down-regulating autonomic arousal in line with contextual demands. We also demonstrated that executive function and cognitive control mechanisms are likely to be less effective in children with comorbid ADHD+ASD, with negative effects on performance accuracy. In the discussion of this dissertation, some suggestions for clinical practice and future research studies, besides a description of the implications of the findings on the everyday life of people with ADHD and/or ASD, are provided.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Groom, Madeleine J. Hollis, Chris
Keywords:	ADHD; Autism; attention; arousal; developmental psychology; cognitive neuroscience
Subjects:	W Medicine and related subjects (NLM Classification) > WS Pediatrics
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine
Item ID:	60629
Depositing User:	Bellato, Alessio
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2020 04:40
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2020 04:40
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/60629

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