An Investigation of Visuospatial Memory Impairment in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Combined Type

Background: Memory impairment is not considered a core cognitive feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT), although it is associated with impairments in attentional and executive functions. This study investigates visuospatial memory impairment, in particular encoding and retrieval aspects, in children with ADHD-CT who are stimulant-medication naive and medicated with stimulant medication.

Method: A cross-sectional study of visuospatial memory in 6- to 12-year-old children with stimulant-medication-naive ADHD-CT (n = 62) and medicated ADHD-CT (n = 58) compared to an age- and gender-matched healthy control group (n = 39) was completed.

Results: Both medication-naive and medicated ADHD-CT groups demonstrated subtle yet significant impairment in visuospatial memory. The memory impairment was delay-independent, which, along with other factors, suggest dysfunction of the encoding rather than retrieval phase of visuospatial memory.

Conclusions: Careful study of large ADHD-CT samples does detect deficits in a visuospatial memory task, but these reflect attentional deficits rather than being specifically due to dysfunction of the medial temporal lobe explicit memory system. Children with ADHD-CT may benefit from cognitive and behavioural strategies focused on improving encoding of relevant information rather than retrieval strategies.