The Comparison of Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment, Response Inhibition and Sustained Attention in Children with ADHD and SCT: Distinct Contribution of ADHD and SCT to Attention Problems Based on Cold and Hot Executive Circuits

Objectives: Recent studies have identified a disorder called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) that has similarities with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in attention problems and often mistakenly labeled as ADHD. Attention problems also cause malfunctions in executive functions, often involving the hot circuit and the cold circuit. The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity to reward and punishment, response inhibition and sustained attention in children with ADHD and SCT. Methods: The design of the present study was in the frame of Casual Comparative. Participants comprised 100 boys (50 ADHD and 50 SCT) from elem entary schools in Tabriz in 1398-1399 academic years, which were selected through a screening method using the Child Behavior Rating Scale (SNAP-IV) and the SCT scale. Then, balloon analogue risk task (BART) was used to measure the sensitivity to reward and punishment and the continuous performance test was used to measure response inhibition and sustained attention. For data analysis Manova and SPSS 20 were used. Results: The results showed that children with ADHD had higher scores in sensitivity to reward and children with SCT had higher scores in sensitivity to punishment. Moreover, children with ADHD have deficits in response inhibition and children with SCT have deficits in sustained attention (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Based on the research Background and the findings of this study, it seems that children with SCT have deficits in hot executive circuit and children with ADHD have trouble in cold executive circuit.