Disentangling Deficits in Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

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Abstract
Executive functions that govern everyday human behavior are manifold in nature. They range from being able to maintain a certain focus of attention, to switching attention from one source of information to another, to the ability to suppress inadequate but prepotent or ongoing response tendencies (response inhibition). These subfunctions have to be combined to achieve one’s daily goals.1 At an operational level, the relative contributions of these subfunctions are hard to distinguish. Behavioral measures such as speed and accuracy that are generally used as indices of executive functions by definition reflect the compound contributions of different subfunctions. Their distinction becomes particularly urgent when identifying core deficits underlying psychiatric disorders. A prime example is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).