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The impact of somatic markers on decision-making in ADHD
You are here:
The impact of somatic markers on decision-making in ADHD

Date: June 2, 2022 9:00 am

The impact of somatic markers on decision-making in ADHD

Speaker: Eva Halbe

Risky decision-making behavior has been shown to be impaired in attention-deficits-/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and often causes deficits in the patients’ socio-emotional life. As risky decisions often result from quick
and intuitive behavior, analyses of subconscious affective functions and feedback processes are important.
These emotion-driven processes elicit physiological changes and can be detected by measuring alternations in
skin conductance signals. A link between affect, physiological activity, and stimulus is represented by the
somatic markers (SM). In subconscious decision-making processes, these markers are then used to intuitively
guide behavior. The aim of this study is to explore whether deficits in risky decision-making behavior in ADHD
can be traced back to an impaired SM generation. Therefore, skin conductance responses were continuously
recorded during the performance of a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Additional
data, regarding conscious self-assessment of risk behavior and emotional competence were collected by
questionnaires (DOSPERT; EKF). In this talk, I will first give a brief overview about the pathology of ADHD and
the basis of unconscious decision-making, influenced by somatic markers. Secondly, I will present the
behavioral results and related SCRs. Then, I will compare the behavioral data with the self-assessments from
the questionnaires. Finally, I will discuss these results as an explanation for somatic marker dysfunction in
ADHD and how an upcoming imaging study will be used to investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Host: Ulrich Ettinger, Prof. Dr.

ICAL-Link

Venue:

https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/99726851020?pwd=ZHRpaDQrZ2YzYnFmUE51eitkMjZiZz09
Meeting-ID: 997 2685 1020, Code: 001211

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Heinz Beck
Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research
Life and Brain Center
University of Bonn Medical Center
Sigmund-Freud Str. 25
53127 Bonn

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Heinz Beck
Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research
Life and Brain Center
University of Bonn Medical Center
Sigmund-Freud Str. 25
53127 Bonn

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Heinz Beck
Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research
Life and Brain Center
University of Bonn Medical Center
Sigmund-Freud Str. 25
53127 Bonn