Seeing is believing: Larger Colavita effect in school-aged children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Qinyue Qian; Shizhong Cai; Xianghui Zhang; Jie Huang; Yan Chen; Aijun Wang; Ming Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105798

Seeing is believing: Larger Colavita effect in school-aged children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Feb:238:105798. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105798. Epub 2023 Oct 14.

Authors

Qinyue Qian¹, Shizhong Cai², Xianghui Zhang¹, Jie Huang¹, Yan Chen³, Aijun Wang⁴, Ming Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China; Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
² Department of Child and Adolescent Healthcare, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215003, China.
³ Department of Child and Adolescent Healthcare, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215003, China. Electronic address: chenyan0823@suda.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China; Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China. Electronic address: ajwang@suda.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China; Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China; Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215011, China; Faculty of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan. Electronic address: psychzm@mail.usts.edu.cn.

PMID: 37844345
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105798

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that leads to visually relevant compensatory activities and cognitive strategies in children. Previous studies have identified difficulties with audiovisual integration in children with ADHD, but the characteristics of the visual dominance effect when processing multisensory stimuli are not clear in children with ADHD. The current study used the Colavita paradigm to explore the visual dominance effect in school-aged children with ADHD. The results found that, compared with typically developing children, children with ADHD had a higher proportion of "visual-auditory" trials and a lower proportion of "simultaneous" trials. The study also found that the proportion of visual-auditory trials in children with ADHD decreased as their Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham-IV rating scale (SNAP-IV) inattention scores increased. The results showed that school-aged children with ADHD had a larger Colavita effect, which decreased with the severity of inattentive symptoms. This may be due to an overreliance on visual information and an abnormal integration time window. The connection between multisensory cognitive processing performance and clinical symptoms found in the current study provides empirical and theoretical support for the knowledge base of multisensory and cognitive abilities in disorders.

Keywords: ADHD; Colavita effect; Visual dominance.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity*
Child
Cognition
Humans