Abstract

CAPOVILLA, Alessandra Gotuzo Seabra; ASSEF, Ellen Carolina dos Santos  and  COZZA, Heitor Francisco Pinto. Neuropsychological assessment of executive functions and relations with desattention and hyperactivity. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2007, vol.6, n.1, pp. 51-60. ISSN 1677-0471.

The executive functions refer to the capacity of the subject to engage in oriented behavior to objectives, accomplishing voluntary and self-organized actions. Disturbances in these functions are related to disorders like the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Researches have been indicated that executive functions must be divided in components, such as working memory, selective attention, inhibitory control, flexibility and planning. This article discusses the executive functions and their involvement in ADHD, and its describes two Brazilian researches that investigated validity of tests for assesses the executive components in children, correlating them with desattention and hyperactivity. In the first research, there were negative correlations between desattention/hyperactivity and scores in Trial Making Test, London Tower, Verbal and Visual Working Memory Test. Children with ADHD had poorer performance in Semantic Generation Test, Stroop Test and Trial Making Test. These studies have been demonstrated test's validity, revealing deficits in some executive components in ADHD.

Keywords : Neuropsychological assessment; Executive functions; Validation.

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