Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:45:23.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards operationalising internal distractibility (Mind Wandering) in adults with ADHD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Joseph Biederman ,
Maura Fitzgerald ,
Mai Uchida ,
Thomas J. Spencer ,
Ronna Fried ,
Jennifer Wicks ,
Alexandra Saunders  and
Stephen V. Faraone
Joseph Biederman*
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Maura Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Mai Uchida
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Thomas J. Spencer
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Ronna Fried
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Jennifer Wicks
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Alexandra Saunders
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Stephen V. Faraone
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA K.G.Jebsen Centre for Psychiatric Disorders, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
*
*Joseph Biederman, 55 Fruit Street, Yawkey 6A, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel: +617 726 1743; Fax: +617 724 3742; E-mail: jbiederman@partners.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective

To investigate whether specific symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can help identify ADHD patients with mind wandering.

Methods

Subjects were adults ages 18–55 of both sexes (n=41) who completed the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) and the ADHD module of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Epidemiologic Version. We used Spearman’s rank correlation and Pearson’s χ2 analyses to examine associations between the ADHD module and the MWQ and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the ADHD module.

Results

Out of the three ADHD domains, the inattentive ADHD scores had the strongest association with the MWQ (total: r s=0.34, df=39, p=0.03; inattentive: r s=0.38, df=39, p=0.02; Hyperactive: r s=0.17, df=39, p=0.28). Correlation analyses between individual items on the ADHD module and the MWQ showed that two inattention items (‘failure to pay attention to detail’ and ‘trouble following instructions’) were positively associated with total scores on the MWQ (p=0.02). These two inattention items had the strongest association with the MWQ (r s=0.45, df=38, p=0.004). ROC analyses showed that the combined score of the two significant inattention items had the highest efficiency (AUC=0.71) in classifying high-level mind wanderers as defined by scores greater than the median split on the MWQ. The combined score of the two inattention items best identified high-level mind wanderers.

Conclusion

Results suggest a way to operationalise mind wandering using the symptoms of ADHD.

Keywords

ADHDadultsinattentionmind wandering
Type
Original Articles
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2017 , pp. 330 - 336
Copyright
© Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Smallwood, J, Schooler, JW. The restless mind. Psychol Bull 2006;132:946–958.Google Scholar
2. Smallwood, J, Mcspadden, M, Schooler, JW. The lights are on but no one’s home: meta-awareness and the decoupling of attention when the mind wanders. Psychon Bull Rev 2007;14:527–533.Google Scholar
3. Seli, P, Smallwood, J, Cheyne, JA, Smilek, D. On the relation of mind wandering and ADHD symptomatology. Psychon Bull Rev 2015;22:629–636.Google Scholar
4. Cheyne, JA, Solman, GJF, Carriere, JSA, Smilek, D. Anatomy of an error: a bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors. Cognition 2009;111:98–113.Google Scholar
5. Seli, P, Carriere, JS, Levene, M, Smilek, D. How few and far between? Examining the effects of probe rate on self-reported mind wandering. Front Psychol 2013;4:430.Google Scholar
6. Seli, P, Cheyne, JA, Smilek, D. Wandering minds and wavering rhythms: linking mind wandering and behavioral variability. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2013;39:1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7. Seli, P, Carriere, JS, Thomson, DR, Cheyne, JA, Martens, KA, Smilek, D. Restless mind, restless body. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2014;40:660–668.Google Scholar
8. Carriere, JS, Seli, P, Smilek, D. Wandering in both mind and body: individual differences in mind wandering and inattention predict fidgeting. Can J Exp Psychol 2013;67:19–31.Google Scholar
9. Giambra, LM. Task-unrelated-thought frequency as a function of age: a laboratory study. Psychol Aging 1989;4:136–143.Google Scholar
10. Seli, P, Carriere, JS, Smilek, D. Not all mind wandering is created equal: dissociating deliberate from spontaneous mind wandering. Psychol Res 2015;79:750–758.Google Scholar
11. Shaw, GA, Giambra, LM. Task-unrelated thoughts of college students diagnosed as hyperactive in childhood. Dev Neuropsychol 1993;9:17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. Orvaschel, H, Puig-Antich, J. Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children: epidemiologic version. Fort Lauderdale, FL: Nova University, 1987.Google Scholar
13. Faraone, SV, Biederman, J, Spencer, T et al. Diagnosing adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: are late onset and subthreshold diagnoses valid? Am J Psychiatry 2006;163:1720–1729. quiz 859.Google Scholar
14. Biederman, J, Petty, CR, Monuteaux, MC et al. Adult psychiatric outcomes of girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: 11-year follow-up in a longitudinal case-control study. Am J Psychiatry 2010;167:409–417.Google Scholar
15. Surman, CB, Biederman, J, Spencer, T et al. Deficient emotional self-regulation and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a family risk analysis. Am J Psychiatry 2011;168:617–623.Google Scholar
16. Mrazek, MD, Phillips, DT, Franklin, MS, Broadway, JM, Schooler, JW. Young and restless: validation of the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) reveals disruptive impact of mind-wandering for youth. Front Psychol 2013;4:560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17. Barron, E, Riby, LM, Greer, J, Smallwood, J. Absorbed in thought: the effect of mind wandering on the processing of relevant and irrelevant events. Psychol Sci 2011;22:596–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18. Smallwood, J, Andrews-Hanna, J. Not all minds that wander are lost: the importance of a balanced perspective on the mind-wandering state. Front Psychol 2013;4:441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19. Killingsworth, MA, Gilbert, DT. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science 2010;330:932.Google Scholar
20. Mcvay, JC, Kane, MJ. Conducting the train of thought: working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2009;35:196–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21. Baird, B, Smallwood, J, Mrazek, MD, Kam, JW, Franklin, MS, Schooler, JW. Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychol Sci 2012;23:1117–1122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed