The Comparison And Classification Of Executive Function And Theory Of Mind In Children With ADHD And ASD

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)and Autism spectrum disorders(ASD)are common developmental disorders in children.Although the manifestations and diagnostic criteria of both disorders are different,studies have shown that ADHD and ASD share a similar genetic basis and have many common characteristics.Theory of mind(ToM)and executive function(EF)have always been the focus of research on child development.It is generally believed that ADHD children are deficient in EF,while ASD children are deficient in ToM.However,other studies have shown that ADHD children have social cognition problems,while ASD children have deficiencies in cognitive flexibility and planning ability.Therefore,exploring the similarities and differences of EF and ToM performance of ADHD and ASD children will be more conducive to increasing the understanding of these two types of children with developmental disabilities.In this study,multiple experimental paradigms were used to comprehensively measure the EF and ToM abilities of ADHD,ASD and typically developing(TD)children whose intelligence and language proficiency levels matched.In terms of EF,go-nogo task and day-night/face stroop task were selected to measure response inhibition ability,the spatial working memory task to measure working memory ability,and the AX continuous operation task to measure cognitive flexibility.In terms of ToM,the first /second order theory of mind task and irony recognition task were selected to measure the basic ToM ability,while the faux pas recognition task was used to measure the advanced ToM ability.The results showed that :(1)the three groups of children showed EF abilities,while ADHD children did not show significant deficiencies.ASD children performed less well than the other two groups in response inhibition and cognitive flexibility.(2)ASD children showed a general deficiency in ToM tasks,while ADHD children were significantly weaker than TD children only in the emotional understanding part of faux pas recognition.(3)The relationship of ToM and EF was more similar in ADHD and TD group,that is,there was a correlation between first-order ToM and spatial working memory in both groups.While the response inhibition ability of children with ASD was related to the performance of irony recognition.(4)All children were divided into three categories according to the performance of ToM and EF.Category 1 had sound ToM and partially deficient EF;Category 2 had insufficient ToM and sound EF;Category 3 had a partial deficiency in ToM and an overall deficiency in EF.TD children were distributed in three categories on average,and ADHD children were concentrated in category 1 and category 2,while ASD children were concentrated in the category 2 with insufficient ToM.This study proposed to classify ADHD,ASD and TD children from the perspective of ToM and EF,providing a novel perspective for the understanding of ADHD and ASD.The classification of children according to their ability performance is more conducive to the development of corresponding assessment tools,so as to carry out targeted intervention training for children and help them adapt to learning life and social interaction situations.