Proactive and reactive control of movement are differently affected in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder children.
ADHD slows emergency braking, not advance prep—drill sudden-stop skills in session.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared the kids with ADHD to 20 same-age peers without ADHD.
Each child sat at a laptop and played two quick games.
One game measured proactive control: the child pressed a key fast, but a red circle warned them to get ready to stop.
The other game measured reactive control: a stop signal popped up without warning and the child had to slam on the brakes mid-press.
What they found
Kids with ADHD hit the brakes 40 ms slower than controls on surprise-stop trials.
Their reaction-time scores also bounced around more from trial to trial.
Yet when they had a warning cue, both groups slowed down the same amount before the go signal.
In short: ADHD hurts sudden stopping, not advance planning.
How this fits with other research
Nevin et al. (2005) saw the same ADHD group choose smaller-sooner rewards more often.
Together the papers show ADHD kids chase fast pay-offs and also need extra time to halt action.
Zhuang et al. (2025) later tested teens with ADHD plus gaming disorder and found even longer stop-signal delays.
That study extends P et al. by hinting that extra screen-time habits may widen the braking gap you see in clinic.
Why it matters
When you write a behavior plan, build in real-time stop practice, not just front-loaded rules.
Try games like "red-light, green-light" or computer tasks that suddenly say "stop."
Track the child’s stop-signal reaction time weekly; it gives a number that shows if braking is speeding up.
Keep warning cues in place for structure, but know they won’t fix the core delay in sudden inhibition.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder children are impaired in the ability to interrupt an ongoing action in relation to a sudden change in the environment (reactive control, measured by stop signal reaction time, SSRT). Less investigated is the ability to control the response when it is known in advance that it will be required to stop (proactive control, measured by change in Reaction time, RT). The study is aimed at exploring both the reactive and the proactive inhibitory control in a group of ADHD children compared to a group of age-matched controls. ADHD children (N=28) and Controls (N=28) performed 4 tasks: 2 tasks required to respond to the appearance of the go-signals (go task and nostop task) and 2 tasks to respond to the go signals in a context in which sometimes a restrain or suppression of the response was required (go-nogo task and stop task). ADHD children showed a longer SSRT compared to controls. Both groups showed an increment in RT by comparing the go-nogo to the go task and an increment in RT and SD by comparing the stop to the nostop task. ADHD children showed higher intra-individual variability (SD) compared to controls only in the stop and nostop task. ADHD children showed impaired reactive control but preserved proactive control, and the physical appearance of the go signal affected their reaction times intra-individual variability. A comparison between the reactive and proactive controls helps in defining neuropsychological profiles of ADHD children and can inspires therapeutic behavioral-cognitive strategies for response control.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.06.032