Evaluation of Attention in ADHD Children in Comparison with Healthy Subjects Using Event- Related Potentials (ERPs)

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the common mental disorders in childhood. ADHD is a disorder caused by brainmalfunction, so electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis can be a useful ADHD diagnosis. On the other hand, using event related potentials (ERPs) for diagnosing ADHD has been one of the significant issues in previous studies. ERP components reflect neural activity patternbased on the perception of a given stimulus, so ERP can measure brain activity during intellectual processes in visual and auditory system. In this study, the correlation between ERP components and attention index has been investigated using Integrated Visual and Auditory Test(IVA). Materials and Methods: 9 healthy children (1 female) and 8 ADHD children (2 females) with an average age of 7.11 years participated in this study. EEG data were recorded by the Mitsar202 EEG system and the International Standard 20-10 was used for electrodeplacement. All of the 19 electrodes, including Fz, Cz, Pz, O1, O2, C3, C4, T3, T4, Fp1, Fp2, P3, P4, F3, F4, F7, F8, T5, T6 have been used to record the brain signal and the mean of A1 and A2 for the left and right ears are used as reference. The subject has been asked toparticipate in the IVA test, and simultaneously ERP was recorded. Results: According to the results, there was a significant correlation (r = 0.74 and P = 0.0005) between the delay time of the P300 component of the ERP signal in the P3 channel for auditory stimulation and the correctresponse of the subjects, Also, the correct response for auditory stimulus in the ADHD group was significantlylower than in the healthy children. Conclusion: The P300 component of the ERP signal can be considered as an appropriate tool for determining the level of auditoryattention in ADHD children and distinguish them from healthy people.