Ann-Marie Agerbo Low defends her PhD thesis at the Department of Psychology

Candidate
Ann-Marie Agerbo Low

Title
“Attention, Executive Functioning and Delay Aversion in Adults with newly diagnosed ADHD; Before and after stimulant medication”. The thesis will be available for reading at the Faculty Library of Social Science, Gothersgade 140, 1353 Copenhagen K.

Time and venue
Monday 27 August 2018 at 13:00. Kindly note that the defense will start precisely at the announced time. University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Øster Farimagsgade 5, Building 1, Room 1.1.18., 1353 Copenhagen K. Please note this is a change of venue compared to previously announced venue.

Assessment committee

• Associate Professor, Hana Mala Rytter, (chairman), Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Professor, Barbara Sahakian, UK Senior Researcher, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Head of Neuropsychology, Kathrin Finke, Universitäts Klinikum Jena, Germany

Abstract
Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder which often persists into adult life. Adults with ADHD as a group have a wide range of deficits with regards to cognitive and motivational functions, such as attention, executive functioning, and delay aversion.
The main goals of this empirical study were to investigate (1) the degree to which adults with newly diagnosed ADHD have deficits of visual attention, executive functioning, and delay aversion and (2) whether any such deficits improve after six weeks of stimulant medication (methylphenidate).
Pre-treatment, adults with ADHD were found to have deficits of executive functioning, delay aversion, and specific elements of visual attention. After six weeks of stimulant medication, tests of these functions indicated improvements specifically for processing speed on the visual attentional task, but not for delay aversion or executive functioning. However, adults with ADHD experienced improvements of both delay aversion and executive functioning. Self-reported delay aversion had the most consistent relationship with ADHD symptoms.
These findings have implications for our understanding of neurocognitive deficits in ADHD, and the degree to which cognitive deficits are treated effectively with stimulant medication.