TY - JOUR
T1 - Inhibitory Control in Children with Tourette Syndrome Is Impaired in Everyday Life but Intact during a Stop Signal Task
AU - Ritter, Melanie
AU - Vangkilde, Signe Allerup
AU - Maigaard, Katrine
AU - Pagsberg, Anne Katrine
AU - Plessen, Kerstin Jessica
AU - Hagstrøm, Julie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/8
Y1 - 2022/1/8
N2 - Tourette Syndrome (TS) has previously been associated with deficits in inhibitory control (IC). However, studies on IC in individuals with TS have produced conflicting results. In the present study, we investigated IC, comparing the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) measure with parent and teacher ratings of daily life IC in 169 children aged 8–12 (60 with TS, 60 typically developing controls, 27 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 22 with TS + ADHD). We further investigated associations of IC with TS and ADHD symptom severity. Children with TS showed intact SSRT performance, but impairments in daily life IC, as reported by parents and teachers. For the latter, we observed a staircase distribution of groups, with the healthy controls presenting with the best IC, followed by TS, TS + ADHD, and finally ADHD. Dimensional analyses indicated a strong association between ADHD severity and both measures of IC. Our results indicate that children with TS are not impaired in a laboratory-based measure of IC, although some difficulties were evident from measures of everyday behaviour, which may in part be due to parents and teachers interpreting tics as disinhibited behaviour. Comorbid ADHD or the severity of subthreshold ADHD symptomatology appeared to account for IC deficits.
AB - Tourette Syndrome (TS) has previously been associated with deficits in inhibitory control (IC). However, studies on IC in individuals with TS have produced conflicting results. In the present study, we investigated IC, comparing the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) measure with parent and teacher ratings of daily life IC in 169 children aged 8–12 (60 with TS, 60 typically developing controls, 27 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 22 with TS + ADHD). We further investigated associations of IC with TS and ADHD symptom severity. Children with TS showed intact SSRT performance, but impairments in daily life IC, as reported by parents and teachers. For the latter, we observed a staircase distribution of groups, with the healthy controls presenting with the best IC, followed by TS, TS + ADHD, and finally ADHD. Dimensional analyses indicated a strong association between ADHD severity and both measures of IC. Our results indicate that children with TS are not impaired in a laboratory-based measure of IC, although some difficulties were evident from measures of everyday behaviour, which may in part be due to parents and teachers interpreting tics as disinhibited behaviour. Comorbid ADHD or the severity of subthreshold ADHD symptomatology appeared to account for IC deficits.
KW - ADHD
KW - Inhibitory control
KW - Stop signal task
KW - Tourette Syndrome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122391560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/jcm11020309
DO - 10.3390/jcm11020309
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35054004
AN - SCOPUS:85122391560
SN - 2077-0383
VL - 11
JO - Journal of Clinical Medicine
JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine
IS - 2
M1 - 309
ER -