Neurosci Behav Physiol. 2005 Feb;35(2):153-7.

Evoked brain potentials in adolescents
in normal conditions and in attention deficitduring solution of tasks requiring recognition of short-duration acoustic stimuli.

Aleksandrov AA, Polyakova NV, Stankevich LN.

Department of Higher Nervous Activity and Psychophysiology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Science,
St. Petersburg State University, 7/9 Universitetskaya Bank, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.

This study compares the effectiveness of the frequency-based recognition of short acoustic stimuli in groups of adolescents with attention deficit and normal measures of attention in conditions of the standard "oddball" paradigm. Stimuli of duration 50 msec yielded insignificant intergroup differences, though adolescents with attention deficit discriminated signal of duration 11 msec significantly worse. These showed significant differences in evoked brain potentials even with standard stimuli, with a significantly greater amplitude for N2b waves and a decreased P3b component. Evoked potentials obtained in response to the deviant stimulus were characterized by a P3b wave of reduced amplitude in the group with attention deficit. These data provide evidence that adolescents with attention deficit show defined abnormalities in the processing of acoustic sensory information at the cortical level.