Rose De Kock

Research Description

Rose is interested in studying the embodiment of perceptual decision making in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This clinically-focused study was postponed due to Covid-19, but Rose used this time to complete a study examining timing capabilities in healthy volunteers (now published) and develop one of the paradigms she plans to test in adults with ADHD (presented in a poster). Over the summer, Rose will begin recruiting participants (ADHD and control subjects) to begin a two-part study to characterize the motor correlates of decision making. Previous work by Dr. Julie Schweitzer (co-mentor) found that ADHD-associated motor hyperactivity – previously thought to be a disruption to cognitive functioning - boosted performance in children with ADHD during a cognitive control task (Hartanto et al. 2015). Rose will first test the effect of movement in a time perception task in adults with ADHD and controls to determine the extent to which beneficial movement effects generalize to lower-level information processing. Then, she will investigate the ability of reaching movements to reveal ongoing decision computations when multiple sources of sensory information are integrated. Obtaining multiple observations per participant will allow for between-task comparisons to capture domain-general or -specific deficits in sensory integration that exist within individuals, in line with NIMH Strategic Objective 1. The proposed work is innovative because it will further our understanding of the underexplored relationship between cognition and motor processes in ADHD and it will inform the development of future, novel interventions, paving the way for more accessible therapies for individuals with attentional issues.