Open AccessAtypical alert state control in adult patients with ADHD: A pupillometry study
Author(s) -
Aya Shirama,
Toshinobu Takeda,
Haruhisa Ohta,
Akira Iwanami,
Shigenobu Toda,
Nobuo Kato
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0244662
Subject(s) - pupillometry , alertness , locus coeruleus , pupillary response , pupil , arousal , audiology , tonic (physiology) , psychology , neuroscience , stimulus (psychology) , dysfunctional family , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , pupil diameter , scotopic vision , continuous performance task , medicine , clinical psychology , central nervous system , cognition , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , retina
Although behavioral studies have repeatedly demonstrated that individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have deficits in alertness, little is known about its underlying neural basis. It is hypothesized that pupil diameter reflects the firing of norepinephrine (NE) neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC), and that the LC-NE neuromodulatory system for regulating alertness may be dysfunctional in ADHD. To clinically and non-invasively examine this hypothesis, we monitored the kinetics of pupil diameter in response to stimuli and compared them between adults with ADHD (n = 17) and typically developing (TD) adults (n = 23) during an auditory continuous performance task. Individuals in the ADHD group exhibited a significantly larger tonic pupil diameter, and a suppressed stimulus-evoked phasic pupil dilation, compared to those in the TD group. These findings provide support for the idea that the aberrant regulatory control of pupil diameter in adults with ADHD may be consistent with a compromised state of alertness resulting from a hyperactivated LC-NE system.