Affective processing and frontal lobe dysfunction in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The purpose of this study was to explore the emotional processing abilities of 20 ADHD adolescents in comparison to 20 normal controls, and to determine if emotional processing abilities could be correlated to executive/frontal lobe functioning. This study analyzed various perceptual and interpretative abilities associated with emotional processing that included facial perception and recognition, interpretation of facial expressions, selection of appropriate facial expressions, and labeling of emotions. The findings suggest that ADHD adolescents demonstrate emotional processing deficits whether stimuli are presented visually or auditorially. The ADHD children, in comparison to controls, were impaired at tasks of matching facial emotions, selecting appropriate facial expressions, and appropriately labeling emotional reactions. On non-emotional tasks, designed similarly to the emotional tasks in construct, sensory modality, and level of cognitive demand, ADHD adolescents were found to perform similarly to normal peers. These findings suggest that emotional processing abilities can be dissociated from other more global cognitive functions. Correlational results provide partial support for a relationship between emotional processing and executive functioning.