TY  - JOUR
A1  - Boxhoorn, Sara
A1  - Bast, Nico
A1  - Supèr, Hans
A1  - Polzer, Leonie
A1  - Cholemkery, Hannah
A1  - Freitag, Christine M.
T1  - Pupil dilation during visuospatial orienting differentiates between autism spectrum disorder and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder
T2  - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
N2  - Background: Previous research demonstrated atypical attention in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Regarding visual orienting, findings suggest a differential impairment: Atypical orienting to relatively unexpected targets in ASD, and atypical processing of alerting cues in ADHD. The locus coeruleus‐norepinephrine (LC‐NE) system plays an important role in exploiting alerting cues to increase attention and task performance. The present study’s aim was to examine differential subcortical processes underlying visual orienting in ASD and ADHD with pupil dilation (PD) as index of LC activity.
Methods: Pupil dilation (PD) progression metrics during visual orienting were calculated for task‐evoked PD locked to cue, stimulus onset, and behavioral response. Group differences in PD and reaction time (RT) were compared between children with ASD without ADHD (ASD‐) (N = 18), ADHD without ASD (ADHD‐) (N = 28), both disorders (ASD + ADHD) (N = 14), and typically developing children (TD) (N = 31) using linear mixed models (LMM). To further explore the modulatory role of the LC‐NE system group differences in the effect of task‐evoked PD metrics on RT were examined exploratively.
Results: ASD (+ADHD) showed slower orienting responses to relatively unexpected spatial target stimuli as compared to TD, which was accompanied by higher PD amplitudes relative to ADHD− and TD. In ADHD−, shorter cue‐evoked PD latencies relative to ASD−, ASD + ADHD, and TD were found. Group differences in the effect of cue‐ and stimulus‐evoked PD amplitudes on RT were found in ASD− relative to TD.
Conclusions: Study findings provide new evidence for a specific role of the LC‐NE system in impaired reflexive orienting responses in ASD, and atypical visual processing of alerting cues in ADHD.
KW  - attention
KW  - LC-NE system
KW  - attention-deficit/hyperactivitydisorder
KW  - autism spectrum disorder
KW  - pupil dilation
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57024
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-570244
SN  - 1469-7610
SN  - 0021-9630
VL  - 61.2020
IS  - 5
SP  - 614
EP  - 624
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Oxford
ER  -