The Effect of Physical Effort in the Decision Making Process of Preadolescents With ADHD

Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: ADHD

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01978769

effortdiscounting.ctil

Details and patient eligibility

About

In the current study we will examine a specific aspect of these processes that has yet to be studied. We will test the effect that a physically effortful assignment has on the choices that a preadolescent makes using a forced choice paradigm in which the participant will be asked to choose between and carry out either a high cost-high reward option (HR) or a low cost-low reward (LR) option. The HR option will demand a significant amount of physical effort and will be paired up with a large reward as opposed to the LR option which will be less demanding physically and paired up with a small reward. The assignment will be carried out using a hand held dynamometer which measures the power produced by the participants' upper extremity.

We propose that a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will choose a task that involves less effort despite the small reward tied to it compared to a control child who will choose the more demanding task and the larger reward.

Full description

In the current study we will examine a specific aspect of these processes that has yet to be studied. We will test the effect that a physically effortful assignment has on the choices that a preadolescent makes using a forced choice paradigm in which the participant will be asked to choose between and carry out either a high cost-high reward option (HR) or a low cost-low reward (LR) option. The HR option will demand a significant amount of physical effort and will be paired up with a large reward as opposed to the LR option which will be less demanding physically and paired up with a small reward. The assignment will be carried out using a hand held dynamometer which measures the power produced by the participants' upper extremity.

We propose that a child with ADHD will choose a task that involves less effort despite the small reward tied to it compared to a control child who will choose the more demanding task and the larger reward.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 13 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• clinical diagnosis of ADHD

Exclusion criteria

• any other neurological or psychiatric diagnosis

Trial design

60 participants in 2 patient groups

Preadolescents with ADHD

Description:

preadolescents with prior diagnosis of ADHD and without any other psychiatric or neurological diagnosis.

Preadolescents with out any diagnosis

Description:

Preadolescents with out any diagnosis