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. 2020 Nov;50(11):4085-4105.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04465-9.

Atypical Development of Attentional Control Associates with Later Adaptive Functioning, Autism and ADHD Traits

Alexandra Hendry  1   2 , Emily J H Jones  3 , Rachael Bedford  4 , Linn Andersson Konke  5 , Jannath Begum Ali  3 , Sven Bӧlte  6   7 , Karin C Brocki  5 , Ellen Demurie  8 , Mark Johnson  3   9 , Mirjam K J Pijl  10 , Herbert Roeyers  8 , Tony Charman  11 ; Eurosibs Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Atypical Development of Attentional Control Associates with Later Adaptive Functioning, Autism and ADHD Traits

Alexandra Hendry et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Autism is frequently associated with difficulties with top-down attentional control, which impact on individuals' mental health and quality of life. The developmental processes involved in these attentional difficulties are not well understood. Using a data-driven approach, 2 samples (N = 294 and 412) of infants at elevated and typical likelihood of autism were grouped according to profiles of parent report of attention at 10, 15 and 25 months. In contrast to the normative profile of increases in attentional control scores between infancy and toddlerhood, a minority (7-9%) showed plateauing attentional control scores between 10 and 25 months. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, plateaued growth of attentional control was associated with elevated autism and ADHD traits, and lower adaptive functioning at age 3 years.

Keywords: ADHD; Attention; Atypical development; Autism; Infant; Intermediate phenotype.

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Conflict of interest statement

Bölte discloses that he has in the last 5 years acted as an author, consultant or lecturer for Shire/Takeda, Medice, Roche, Eli Lilly, Prima Psychiatry, and SB Education and Psychological Consulting AB. He receives royalties for text books and diagnostic tools from Huber/Hogrefe, Kohlhammer and UTB. Charman discloses that he has served as a consultant to F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and has received royalties from Sage Publications and Guilford Publications. All other authors report no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sample means by class for the 4-class LCA model of parent report of attentional control in the first 3 years of life: Sample 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sample means by class for the 5-class LCA model of parent report of attentional control in the first 3 years of life: Sample 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Attention scores by class and likelihood group for the 4-class LCA model of parent report of attentional control in the first 3 years of life (based on most likely class); Sample 1. EL elevated likelihood, TL typical likelihood. Class a: Normative; Class b: High attentional control; Class c: Low attentional control; Class d: Plateaued attention development
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Attention scores by class and likelihood group for the 5-class LCA model of parent report of attentional control in the first 3 years of life (based on most likely class); Sample 2. EL elevated likelihood, TL typical likelihood. Class a: Normative; Class b: High attentional control; Class c: Low attentional control; Class d: Plateaued attention development; Class d: Low focus, high shifting
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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