NCT01978769

The Effect of Physical Effort in the Decision Making Process of Preadolescents With ADHD

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 60 (actual)
• Sponsor: Shaare Zedek Medical Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 11 Years – 13 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

In the current study we will examine a specific aspect of these processes that has yet to be studied. We will test the effect that a physically effortful assignment has on the choices that a preadolescent makes using a forced choice paradigm in which the participant will be asked to choose between and carry out either a high cost-high reward option (HR) or a low cost-low reward (LR) option. The HR option will demand a significant amount of physical effort and will be paired up with a large reward as opposed to the LR option which will be less demanding physically and paired up with a small reward. The assignment will be carried out using a hand held dynamometer which measures the power produced by the participants' upper extremity. We propose that a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will choose a task that involves less effort despite the small reward tied to it compared to a control child who will choose the more demanding task and the larger reward.

Detailed description

In the current study we will examine a specific aspect of these processes that has yet to be studied. We will test the effect that a physically effortful assignment has on the choices that a preadolescent makes using a forced choice paradigm in which the participant will be asked to choose between and carry out either a high cost-high reward option (HR) or a low cost-low reward (LR) option. The HR option will demand a significant amount of physical effort and will be paired up with a large reward as opposed to the LR option which will be less demanding physically and paired up with a small reward. The assignment will be carried out using a hand held dynamometer which measures the power produced by the participants' upper extremity. We propose that a child with ADHD will choose a task that involves less effort despite the small reward tied to it compared to a control child who will choose the more demanding task and the larger reward.

Conditions

• ADHD

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-11-01
• Primary completion: 2015-04-01
• Completion: 2015-04-01
• First posted: 2013-11-08
• Last updated: 2015-09-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel