Neurophysiology of Perceptual Decision-Making and Its Alterations in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Despite the prevalence of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), efforts to develop a detailed understanding of the neuropsychology of this neurodevelopmental condition are complicated by the diversity of interindividual presentations and the inability of current clinical tests to distinguish between its sensory, attentional, arousal, or motoric contributions. Identifying objective methods that can explain the diverse performance profiles across individuals diagnosed with ADHD has been a long-held goal. Achieving this could significantly advance our understanding of etiological processes and potentially inform the development of personalized treatment approaches. Here, we examine key neuropsychological components of ADHD within an electrophysiological (EEG) perceptual decision-making paradigm that is capable of isolating distinct neural signals of several key information processing stages necessary for sensory-guided actions from attentional selection to motor responses. Using a perceptual decision-making task (random dot motion), we evaluated the performance of 79 children (aged 8–17 years) and found slower and less accurate responses, along with a reduced rate of evidence accumulation (drift rate parameter of drift diffusion model), in children with ADHD (n = 37; 13 female) compared with typically developing peers (n = 42; 18 female). This was driven by the atypical dynamics of discrete electrophysiological signatures of attentional selection, the accumulation of sensory evidence, and strategic adjustments reflecting urgency of response. These findings offer an integrated account of decision-making in ADHD and establish discrete neural signals that might be used to understand the wide range of neuropsychological performance variations in individuals with ADHD.