Paper accepted in Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Kong, Y., Yuan, X., Dand, C., Wang, Y., Huang, J., Guo, J., Jensen, O., Sun, L., and Song, Y. (in press). Altered Processing of Auditory Distractions Under Competing Inputs in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.  J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2025.11.003

This paper, created in collaboration with Beijing Normal University, outlines neural correlates of distractibility in children with ADHD. In typically developing children and adults, auditory distractors result in a signature electroencephalography (EEG) event-related potential - mismatch negativity (MMN). However, with increased visual task attentional demands, the auditory distractor-caused MMN amplitude tends to decrease. This effect is absent in children with ADHD, suggesting altered neural processing of distractor stimuli. Furthermore, the MMN amplitude predicted ADHD sensitivity. Additionally, children with ADHD showed greater frontal theta-band intertrial phase coherence and power in response to autidory distractors, suggesting an increased distractor sensitivity. In summary, children with ADHD struggle to filter out irrelevant sounds, reflecting an atypical neurophysiological sensitivity to distraction.