Superior motor competence in children with ADHD is associated with optimized neurocognitive development of inhibitory control processing: An ERP study.
Kids with ADHD who move well think faster and show brain waves that look almost typical.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers split the kids with ADHD into high- and low-motor-skill groups. They gave everyone a color-word Stroop test while recording brain waves.
Kids also completed motor tests like balancing and catching. The team compared Stroop speed and a brain wave called P3 across the two groups and to 30 neurotypical kids.
What they found
High-motor kids with ADHD answered the Stroop test just as fast as typical kids. Their P3 wave, a sign of sharp inhibitory control, was also the same size.
Low-motor kids with ADHD were slower and had smaller P3 waves. Better motor scores lined up with better brain-based control, even after IQ was held constant.
How this fits with other research
Fenollar-Cortés et al. (2017) seems to say the opposite: more inattention predicted more fine-motor errors. The difference is focus. Javier looked at small hand tasks; Ting-Yu looked at whole-body balance and ball skills. Fine and gross motor systems may follow separate rules.
Wang et al. (2024) extend the story. Their 12-week after-school exercise program shortened sleep latency and boosted cognitive flexibility in kids with ADHD. The new study adds that kids who already move well show stronger inhibitory circuits, giving you two reasons to add movement.
Zhou et al. (2022) used a different lab test but also found that ADHD brains stay flat while typical brains flex with task speed. Ting-Yu shows that high motor competence can nudge the ADHD brain closer to that flexible, typical pattern.
Why it matters
If you work with ADHD, screen gross motor skills. A quick balance or ball-toss test can flag kids who may struggle most with inhibition. Add whole-body movement breaks, obstacle courses, or active games to your session plan. You could strengthen both legs of the motor-inhibition loop at once.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive deficits, especially inhibitory control processing, are common developmental challenges in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although previous studies have suggested that greater motor competence (MC) is associated with better inhibitory control on both behavioral and neuroelectric levels in children with ADHD, some limitations exist. AIMS: To examine whether higher MC is associated with improved neurocognitive development in children with ADHD, as indexed by behavioral and neuroelectric indices of inhibitory control in a well-designed study. METHODS: Sixty children with ADHD were divided into high MC (n = 30) and low MC (n = 30) groups, based on the median total composite scores from the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Forty-four typically developing (TD) children were recruited as the healthy control. The Stroop task was administered to assess inhibitory control while electroencephalography was recorded to derive P3 component. RESULTS: The TD children group demonstrated higher accuracy rate (AR), shorter reaction time (RT), and greater P3 amplitude relative to the Low MC ADHD group (ps = .02). However, the TD children group had higher AR compared to the High MC ADHD group, with no significant differences in RT (p = .927) and P3 amplitude (p = .796). Further, the High MC ADHD group demonstrated shorter RT (p = .019) and greater P3 amplitude (p = .041) regardless of congruency compared to the Low MC ADHD group while accounting for intelligence quotient and aerobic fitness. CONCLUSIONS: Superior MC in children with ADHD is associated with favorable neurocognitive development, as evidenced not only by the association of MC with enhanced inhibitory control performance and increased P3 amplitude but also by that such neurocognitive performance is comparable to those of TD children. These findings suggest that enhanced MC plays a role in mitigating typical neurocognitive deficits associated with inhibitory control processing in children with ADHD.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.104993