AUTHOR=Osborne Jahla B. , Zhang Han , Carlson Madison , Shah Priti , Jonides John 

TITLE=The association between different sources of distraction and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1173989

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1173989

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are generally distractible. Yet, the precise relationship between ADHD and distractibility remains under-specified in two respects. First, different sources of distraction, such as background noise or mind wandering, may not be equally associated with ADHD. Second, ADHD itself comprises a variety of symptoms that show considerable heterogeneity and it is unclear which ADHD symptoms are associated with which type of distraction.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The current study addresses these questions using one clinically evaluated sample (<italic>N</italic> = 69) and two large non-clinically evaluated samples (<italic>N</italic> = 569, <italic>N</italic> = 651). In all samples, participants completed questionnaires about their susceptibility to external distraction, unwanted intrusive thoughts, spontaneous mind-wandering and ADHD symptomatology.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Traditional regression and novel network analyses revealed an overwhelming contribution of spontaneous mind-wandering in explaining ADHD symptoms, although external distraction and unwanted intrusive thoughts were also associated with a small number of ADHD symptoms.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Findings support a growing body of literature linking spontaneous mind-wandering and ADHD, and they highlight the heterogeneity in the association between ADHD symptoms and different sources of distraction.</p></sec>