• H Karin Gomarus, Albertus A Wijers, Ruud B Minderaa, and Monika Althaus.
• Department of Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen, The Netherlands.
• Clin Neurophysiol. 2009 Jan 1;120(1):73-9.

ObjectiveWe examined whether the method of event-related (de-)synchronization (ERD/ERS) revealed differential effects of selective attention and working memory load in children (8-11 years) with pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).MethodsFifteen healthy controls and three equally large groups of children with symptoms of PDD-NOS, ADHD or both (PDD/HD) performed a visual selective memory search task. The EEG was recorded from which occipital alpha and frontal theta were derived.ResultsThe effects of the overall task manipulations of task load, relevance and target/nontarget were clearly present in the overall analyses of alpha and theta ERD/ERS. However, no significant differences with respect to these manipulations existed between any of the subject groups.ConclusionsThe results supply no evidence for a distinction in information processing abilities of selective attention and working memory as reflected by alpha and theta ERD/ERS between children diagnosed with either ADHD, PDD-NOS or healthy controls.SignificanceAlpha and theta ERD/ERS are sensitive to manipulations of task load, relevance and target/nontarget, but supply no additional information on possible group differences in comparison to the more frequently used method of event-related potentials.

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