Caffein and ADHD-Like Traits

Abstract

Distractibility is a primary symptom of inattention in ADHD, although its neural basis is still unknown. However, recently, studies have shown that superior colliculus is responsible for attention – may be hyper-responsive to sensory stimuli in ADHD leading to increased distractibility. Evidence suggests that caffeine may have an effect at the level of the superior colliculus which may be therapeutically useful in ADHD. Based on these previous findings, this project aimed to explore the effect of caffeine consumption on distractibility in clinical and non-clinical adults with ADHD like traits. To achieve this aim participants undertook online adult ADHD self-report scale, sustained attention to response task, and caffeine consumption habits questionnaire. The results of this study showed that there was no correlation between scores on ADHD self-report and reaction time distractor cost for the groups. In addition, caffeine current consumption was not associated with distractibility. More specifically, no differences were found between the groups in consuming the caffeine before/during the task. Additional findings in this project represented that in low and high ADHD like traits groups, accuracy was not related to level of the ADHD. Likewise, the caffeine consumption was not associated with the accuracy. However, there was a strong relationship between omission errors and high level of ADHD in the clinical group. This study contributed to the previous studies on building the ideal distractor paradigm. Furthermore, this project could add value to researches on alternative treatments for adults with ADHD.as there is a lack on investigating the impact of caffeine on attention task that comprises distractors in adults.