Clinical trial NCT01978769: The Effect of Physical Effort in the Decision Making Process of Preadolescents With ADHD
Official title: The Effect of Physical Effort in the Decision Making Process of Preadolescents With ADHD
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: ADHD
Lead sponsor: Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2013-11-08
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 11
Maximum age (years): 13
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: residents of jerusalem

Brief 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* clinical diagnosis of ADHD

Exclusion Criteria:

* any other neurological or psychiatric diagnosis

Primary outcomes:
measure: The number of "low effort" choices of the ADHD participants compared to the number of "low effort" choices of the control participants
timeFrame: immediately after testing
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Jerusalem
country: Israel
facility: Shaarei Zedek Medical Center
Study officials:
affiliation: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
name: yehuda polak, Dr.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: