Publications

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often diagnosed in children and adolescents with epilepsy, but clear clinical guidelines on how to make this diagnosis are still lacking. Without these guidelines, there is no consensus between specialists on how to proceed when assessing children with epilepsy for ADHD, which can negatively impact the quality of care being offered to this population. As a first step toward gaining more specific clinical guidelines, this scoping review was aimed at documenting the tools and procedures used to diagnose ADHD in children and adolescents with epilepsy over time and at determining whether the diagnoses were made in accordance with clinical guidelines and recommendations. The literature search was conducted using PsycINFO, PubMed, and CINAHL. Studies were included if conducted with children and adolescents aged between 4 and 18 years with epilepsy being evaluated for ADHD. Studies were clustered according to their publication date and the reported diagnostic procedures were identified. Forty-nine out of 3854 records were included. Results highlight discrepancies between how ADHD was diagnosed in reviewed studies and clinical guidelines or recommendations. Indeed, most studies did not use a multi-method and multi-informant approach when diagnosing ADHD in children with epilepsy, with no improvement over time. Future studies aimed at diagnosing ADHD in children and adolescents should ensure that they are following clinical guidelines and recommendations, in addition to adapting their diagnostic procedures to the presence of any neurological comorbidities, such as epilepsy.

Mind wandering has often been studied in relation to psychopathology. However, debates remain as to whether sluggish cognitive tempo, recently termed cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS), and ADHD symptoms could be unique predictors of mind wandering. Therefore, this study was aimed at documenting the associations between CDS, ADHD symptoms and mind wandering while controlling for age, sex, internalized symptoms, and sleep. A sample consisting of university students (N = 60; aged between 17 and 32 years; 65% female) completed measures of CDS, ADHD symptoms, internalized functioning and insomnia. Mind wandering was also assessed using the 5-item Mind Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) and thought sampling during a reading task. Multiple regression analyses show that while younger age and inattention were significant predictors of greater levels of self-reported mind wandering on the MWQ, sex, CDS, hyperactivity/impulsivity, internalized symptoms, and sleep were not. In addition, no variables were able to significantly predict spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering as assessed by thought sampling. These findings raise important questions regarding the equivalence between measures of state-level and trait-level mind wandering. The associations between ADHD, CDS and mind wandering in young adults are still unclear, but our findings highlight critical methodological considerations for future studies that might further our understanding of the relationship between task-unrelated thought and psychopathology.

Reading some words aloud during presentation, that is, producing them, and reading other words silently generate a large memory advantage for words that are produced. This robust within-list production effect is in contrast with the between-lists condition in which all words are read aloud or silently. In a between-lists condition, produced items are better recognized, but not better recalled. The lack of a between-lists production effect with recall tasks has often been presented as one of its defining characteristics and as a benchmark for evaluating models. Recently, Cyr et al. (2021) showed that this occurs because item production interacts with serial positions: Produced items are less well recalled on the first serial positions than silently read items, while the reverse pattern is observed for the recency portion of the curve. However, this pattern was observed with a repeated-measures design, and it may be a by-product of compensatory processes under the control of participants. Here, using a between-participants design, we observed the predicted interaction between production and serial positions. The results further support the Revised Feature Model (RFM) suggesting that produced items are encoded with more modality-dependent distinctive features, therefore benefiting recall. However, the production of the additional distinctive features would disrupt rehearsal.

When encoding a list of to-be-remembered words, typically the first and last items are better remembered. However, recent work on the production effect has shown that reading words aloud at encoding benefits recency but reduces primacy. According to the Revised Feature Model (RFM; Saint-Aubin et al., 2021), this interaction with serial position occurs because reading aloud generates additional features while also blocking rehearsal. Here, we examined whether this interaction occurred with other encoding techniques, specifically drawing (Wammes et al., 2016). Across two experiments, data from 120 participants were collected at two different sites and in two different languages. Participants completed a delayed free recall task after drawing or silently reading words presented in the same lists (Experiment 1) or in separate lists (Experiment 2). Results show a systematic advantage for drawn items in mixed lists and similar to reading aloud (Saint-Aubin et al., 2021), memory performance for pure lists shows that drawing leads to a preserved recency but reduced primacy effect. Results suggest that the RFM could be used as a unified account to explain how encoding techniques impact memory. Future studies should examine whether serial position also interacts with other techniques such as generation, enactment, and level of processing.

When some words within a list are read aloud (or produced) and others are read silently, produced items are better recalled. According to the Revised Feature Model, producing an item generates additional features increasing its distinctiveness relative to silently read items (Saint-Aubin et al., 2021). Because forgetting would be due to retroactive interference at the feature level, produced items would be better recalled when followed by a silently read item than by another produced item. On the other hand, Forrin et al. (2019) suggested a cost for silently read items. This cost would derive from social anxiety and performance anticipation arising when participants silently read an item while knowing that the next word would be read aloud in front of the experimenter. We tested these two hypotheses in 4 experiments in which 200 participants completed an immediate or delayed free recall task with 10-word lists. Produced and silent items were presented in two blocks of various lengths and participants knew which words had to be said aloud. The presence of the experimenter was also manipulated but had no effect. Results provide full support to the Revised Feature Model, but only partial support to the performance anticipation hypothesis. 

Producing words at encoding (reading them aloud or writing them down) has proven to be beneficial in enhancing memory. However, production’s ability to benefit learning of new words is up for debate, with some studies suggesting production could actually disrupt learning. Importantly, since encoding strategies are often used to facilitate vocabulary acquisition in classrooms, evaluating their efficacy as tools for second language learning is critical. Here, 120 English monolinguals, who self-reported knowing little to no French, were visually presented with 60 English-French word pairs and asked to read them silently, write them down, or read them aloud in a repeated-measures design. We then assessed learning of the bilingual word pairs with paper & pencil ‘matching tests’, separately for pairs learned with each encoding strategy; participants had to select the French translation for each word from a set of 20 familiar alternatives. Participants also completed subjective and objective measures of their English and French proficiency. Overall, there was no production benefit on performance. Importantly, however, we found that the magnitude of the production benefit increased as French proficiency decreased. This result suggests that prior knowledge of a second language influences the efficiency of the production benefit for second language learning. 

ADHD represents the most common psychiatric comorbidity in children and adolescents with epilepsy, but while the comorbidity between both conditions has been largely studied, clear clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of ADHD in this population are still lacking. Therefore, this scoping review was aimed at documenting the tools and procedures used to diagnose ADHD in children with epilepsy and to determine how those procedures have evolved over time in relation to clinical recommendations. The search was conducted in October 2021 and was aimed at identifying studies focused on children and adolescents aged between 4 and 18 years with epilepsy who were being evaluated for ADHD. Forty-eight studies out of 3466 were included. We analyzed data by clustering the studies according to their publication date and identifying the tools used for the diagnosis, the informants, and the specialists responsible for making the diagnosis. Results highlight the lack of consensus on how to proceed when evaluating children with epilepsy for ADHD and discrepancies between how ADHD is diagnosed in clinical practice and in research. Despite guidelines recommending the use of a multimethod and multi-informant approach when diagnosing ADHD in children with psychiatric or neurological comorbidities, results show that most studies did not use this approach and that there was no improvement over time.

Lors de l’exécution d’une série de tâches cognitives, notre performance à une tâche dépend des stratégies utilisées pour compléter les tâches précédentes (Schneider & Anderson, 2010). Ces effets séquentiels de difficulté (ESD) ont été observés dans divers domaines, notamment en arithmétique mentale (ex. Uittenhove et al., 2013). Uittenhove et Lemaire (2012, 2013) ont suggéré que les ESD seraient observables environ 200 ms après la présentation du problème et qu’ils seraient dus à une diminution des ressources cognitives (ex. mémoire de travail) disponibles après l’exécution d’une stratégie plus difficile. Toutefois, le rôle de la mémoire de travail dans la magnitude des ESD fut remis en question à la suite des résultats contradictoires de Mosbacher et al. (2020). Ainsi, cette étude visait à évaluer la relation entre la mémoire de travail et les ESD en arithmétique mentale et à déterminer si la présence d’ESD peut être contrôlée en manipulant l’intervalle stimulus-réponse (ISR). 60 participants âgés entre 18 et 26 ans ont complété une tâche d’estimation en arithmétique mentale et deux tâches de mémoire de travail (2-back letter et empan d’opération). Nos résultats montrent qu’il existe des corrélations significatives entre la mémoire de travail et la magnitude des ESD en arithmétique mentale, et qu’une augmentation de l’ISR permet d’éliminer les déficits de performance associés aux ESD. Ces résultats suggèrent que les ESD seraient associés à un épuisement des ressources de mémoire de travail suivant l’exécution d’une stratégie difficile, mais seulement lorsque l’ISR ne permet pas le tri des informations non-pertinentes stockées en mémoire. 

Dans son étude classique, Milgram a démontré de façon extrême la présence d’un rapport de pouvoir entre le participant et l’expérimentateur. Les impacts de ce rapport ont été largement étudiés, mais son rôle sur le fonctionnement de la mémoire demeure peu connu. L’étude de Forrin et al. (2019) sur l’effet de production fait exception à cette règle. Ainsi, l’effet de production, un phénomène caractérisé par un bénéfice en mémoire pour des mots lus à haute voix comparativement aux mots lus silencieusement, pourrait être expliqué à l’aide de facteurs sociaux plutôt que cognitifs. L’effet de production est habituellement modélisé en postulant que l’avantage des mots lus à haute voix découle d’un encodage plus profond ou de caractéristiques uniques supplémentaires induites par le processus d’encodage. Contrairement à cette vision, Forrin et al. (2019) suggèrent que l’effet dérive d’un coût pour les items lus silencieusement et non d’un avantage pour les items produits. Ce coût serait dû à l’anxiété sociale liée à l’anticipation de performance en lisant des mots silencieusement à l’approche de mots devant être lus à haute voix devant un expérimentateur. Dans cette étude, nous avons mis à l’épreuve les prédictions de cette hypothèse avec celles du modèle révisé des caractéristiques. Dans une série de quatre expériences, un total de 200 participants ont complété une tâche de rappel libre à court terme ou à long terme. La présence de l’expérimentateur et la structure des listes ont été systématiquement manipulées. Contrairement aux prédictions de l’hypothèse d’anticipation de performance, nos résultats montrent que la présence de l’expérimentateur n’a eu aucun impact sur la mémoire des participants. Toutefois, nos résultats s’arriment aux prédictions du modèle révisé des caractéristiques quant au rôle distinctif des caractéristiques uniques produites à l’encodage. Nos résultats suggèrent donc qu’une explication de l’effet de production basée sur des principes cognitifs est préférable à une explication basée sur des facteurs sociaux.

Reading some words aloud during presentation, that is, producing them, and reading other words silently generate a large memory advantage for words that are produced. This robust within-list production effect is in contrast with the between lists condition in which all words are read aloud or silently. In a between-lists condition, produced items are better recognized, but not better recalled. The lack of a between-lists production effect with recall tasks has been presented as one of its defining characteristics and as a benchmark for evaluating models. Recently, Cyr et al. (2021) showed that this occurs because item production interacts with serial positions: Produced items are less well recalled on the first serial positions than silently read items, while the reverse pattern is observed for the recency portion of the curve. However, this pattern was observed with a repeated-measures design, and it may be a by-product of compensatory processes under the control of participants. Here, using a between-participants design, we observed the predicted interaction between production and serial positions. The results further support the Revised Feature Model (RFM) suggesting that produced items are encoded with more modality-dependent distinctive features, therefore benefiting recall. However, the production of the additional features would disrupt rehearsal. 

Dans une tâche de mémoire, lire certains mots à haute voix et d’autres silencieusement induit un meilleur rappel des items lus à haute voix, c’est-à-dire produits. Cependant, lorsque tous les items d’une liste sont produits, il ne sont pas mieux rappelés que ceux d’une liste où tous les items sont lus silencieusement (voir Fawcett, 2013 pour une méta-analyse). MacLeod et Bodner (2017) ont identifié cette interaction entre la production et le type de liste comme une question de grande importance théorique. Récemment, Cyr et al. (2021) ont montré que cet effet nul en listes pures résulte d’une interaction entre la production et les positions sérielles: les items produits sont mieux rappelés que les items lus silencieusement aux dernières positions sérielles et l’effet s’inverse aux premières positions. Toutefois, cette interaction a été observée avec un devis à mesures répétées et certains suggèrent que l’interaction découle de stratégies compensatoires contrôlées par le participant. Ici, 50 participants effectuent une tâche de rappel libre différé avec des listes de 10 mots. La moitié produisent les items et l’autre moitié les lisent silencieusement. Les résultats révèlent la présence de l’interaction attendue. Les résultats sont interprétés à la lumière du modèle des caractéristiques révisé (Saint-Aubin et al., 2021) au sein duquel la production d’items entrave l’autorépétition, tout en procurant des caractéristiques dépendantes de la modalité supplémentaires.