Features of Auditory Brainstem Response Spectral Representations as Tools for ADHD-Diagnostics

Abstract: ADHD is a psychological disorder which has become significantly more prevalent and much debated in the last decades. This study investigates the possibilities in developing quantitative diagnostic tools for psychiatric assessment of ADHD based on spectral representations of Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR). Two different approaches to data pre-treatment are adopted, followed by estimates of power spectral densities, cross power spectral densities and time-frequency distributions. From these, features are extracted and examined on their merit as disorder-specific traits. The subject sample consists of ABR:s from 69 individuals; 36 of which are diagnosed with ADHD and 33 healthy controls. Using a band-pass pre-processing method, some significance in difference between disease groups is found for females in terms of dominant frequency, bandwidth, spectral purity and spectral slope in the power spectral density estimate.