Presentation Time: 10:15-10:35
Home University: UNC-Chapel Hill
Research Mentor: Amanda Elton, Psychology and Neuroscience
Program: SMART
Research Title: The Affects of Attention deficit Hyperactivity Disorder on Behavioral Measures of Impulsivity
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is often characterized by impulsive behaviors, difficulty holding attention, and hyperactivity. Impulsivity is one symptom that is usually rated as more prominent in those with ADHD in comparison to those without this disorder. The two behavioral tasks commonly used in researching this disorder are delay discounting and the stop-signal task. Previous research has found that there is greater delay discounting among those with ADHD, but the stop-signal task has provided mixed results in regards to impulsivity. These results were more mixed in regards to adult sufferers of ADHD. The current project involves an MRI study and an online study. The goal of these studies is to see if the impulsivity measured in the results will show a future likelihood of alcohol abuse. The online study currently has data from 337 participants in the delay discounting task and 324 participants in the stop-signal task. All participants are 18 to 19 years old and in their first year of college and most participants do not have ADHD. While the focus of the larger project is on impulsivity and alcohol abuse, my project seeks to understand how ADHD affects performance on behavioral tasks of impulsivity in an emerging adult sample.