Top Highlights

• MPH treatment has been shown to decrease reaction time and its variability (40) and to improve tonic alertness (51), phasic alertness (18), divided attention (52), flexibility/shifting of attention (47), and aspects of selective attention such as inhibition (53) and focused attention (54) in children with ADHD.
• Taken together, these studies underscore MPH positive effects on the attentional functioning of patients with ADHD (55, 56). However, children with ADHD on pharmacological therapy do not necessarily reach an undisturbed level of attentional functioning.
• Applying the multi-component model of attention of Van Zomeren and Brouwer (33), Tucha and colleagues reported that patients with ADHD showed deficits in attention, comprising impairments in vigilance, selective attention, focused attention, divided attention, and shifting compared to healthy peers (39, 40)
• Using the same multi-component model of attention, Pitzianti and colleagues found that in comparison to healthy peers, children with ADHD were seriously impaired in attentional processes, including alertness, selective attention, divided attention, and sustained attention (41). Taken together, these studies show an extensive dysfunction of cortical...
• Attentional dysfunction also manifested itself through an increased reaction time (i.e., divided attention, focused attention, flexibility, and integration of sensory information), an enhanced variability in reaction time (i.e., vigilance, divided attention, inhibition, focused attention, and flexibility) and a poorer task accuracy, as reported by ...

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