Cross-sectional and prospective associations of P300, RewP, and ADHD symptoms in female adolescents

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by impulsivity and distractibility, has been linked to blunted neural indicators of executive function and motivational processing. In the current study, we examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between P300 to feedback stimuli, the reward positivity (RewP), and interview-based and parent-reported ADHD symptoms in a sample of 300 female adolescents aged 8 to 14 who were re-assessed two years later. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that a smaller P300, but not RewP, was associated with greater interview-based and parent-reported ADHD symptoms. Moreover, both the P300 and RewP predicted interview-based symptom exacerbation among participants with some ADHD symptoms at baseline. These effects were found to be independent, supporting the notion of equifinal neurodevelopmental pathways to ADHD: one related to executive function (P300) and the other to motivational processing (RewP). Our results suggest that incorporating psychophysiological measures into early assessment could be valuable for identifying youths likely to have a persistent course of ADHD.