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Commentary: From noise to insight? Reaction time variability in ADHD and autism spectrum disorders – a commentary on Karalunas et al. (2014)
Author(s) -
Kuntsi Jonna
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.12262
Subject(s) - psychology , autism , active listening , cognition , autism spectrum disorder , enthusiasm , clinical psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , psychotherapist , social psychology
Increased reaction time variability ( RTV ) emerged, for many of us in the field, initially as more of an ‘irritant’: a strong correlate of ADHD in particular that persisted when our pet hypotheses on other cognitive constructs withered. But the persistence of this now widespread observation – with high RTV reported across many disorders – has led to investigators paying increasingly more attention to this initially uncool concept. Time is ripe, it seems, for listening to what the ‘noise’ in our reaction time ( RT ) data may tell us. It is against this background that the accompanying Annual Research Review by Karalunas and colleagues captures the current enthusiasm in trying to elucidate whether RTV reflects ‘a trans‐diagnostic phenotype that is associated with shared risk for several disorders or with symptom domains that cut across several disorder categories’ or whether RTV could be ‘decomposed into distinct processes that differ among psychiatric conditions’. Focusing on two neurodevelopmental disorders, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ), Karalunas et al. performed two new meta‐analyses and provide an additional review of the literature, which lead to helpful interim conclusions and open a discussion (which this Commentary preludes) on the next steps in our attempts to make sense of the RT ‘noise’.