https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/911 2026-04-10T23:17:26Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/12831 Electrophysiological evidence for increased auditory crossmodal activity in adult ADHD Schramm, Mia; Goregliad Fjaellingsdal, Tatiana; Aslan, Behrem; Jung, Paul; Lux, Silke; Schulze, Marcel; Philipsen, Alexandra <strong>Background:</strong> Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core symptoms of inattention, and/or impulsivity and hyperactivity. In order to understand the basis for this multifaceted disorder, the investigation of sensory processing aberrancies recently reaches more interest. For example, during the processing of auditory stimuli comparable low sensory thresholds account for symptoms like higher distractibility and auditory hypersensitivity in patients with ADHD. It has further been shown that deficiencies not only exist on an intramodal, but also on a multimodal level. There is evidence that the visual cortex shows more activation during a focused auditory task in adults with ADHD than in healthy controls. This crossmodal activation is interpreted as the reallocation of more attentional resources to the visual domain as well as deficient sensory inhibition. In this study, we used, for the first time, electroencephalography to identify a potential abnormal regulated crossmodal activation in adult ADHD.<br /> <strong>Methods:</strong> 15 adult subjects with clinically diagnosed ADHD and 14 healthy controls comparable in age and gender were included. ERP components P50, P100, N100, P200 and N200 were measured during the performance of a unimodal auditory and visual discrimination task in a block design. Sensory profiles and ADHD symptoms were assessed with inattention as well as childhood ADHD scores. For evaluating intramodal and crossmodal activations, we chose four EEG channels for statistical analysis and group-wise comparison.<br /> <strong>Results: </strong>At the occipital channel O2 that reflects possible crossmodal activations, a significantly enhanced P200 amplitude was measured in the patient group. At the intramodal channels, a significantly enhanced N200 amplitude was observed in the control group. Statistical analysis of behavioral data showed poorer performance of subjects with ADHD as well as higher discrimination thresholds. Further, the correlation of the assessed sensory profiles with the EEG parameters revealed a negative correlation between the P200 component and sensation seeking behavior.<br /> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Our findings show increased auditory crossmodal activity that might reflect an altered stimulus processing resource allocation in ADHD. This might induce consequences for later, higher order attentional deployment. Further, the enhanced P200 amplitude might reflect more sensory registration and therefore deficient inhibition mechanisms in adults with ADHD. 2023-08-29T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/10820 Evaluations of the Authenticity of News Media Articles and Variables of Xenophobia in a German Sample Plieger, Thomas; Al-Haj Mustafa, Sarah; Schwandt, Sebastian; Heer, Jana; Weichert, Alina; Reuter, Martin Xenophobic and right-wing attitudes have become a major issue in Western societies. The present study investigated how such attitudes and stereotypes influence media perception in terms of identifying manipulated news articles. In a fake news paradigm, N = 326 participants provided self-report measures of xenophobia and conservatism, and were presented with real news media articles describing crimes that were committed either by putative German (i.e., in-group) or putative immigrant (i.e., out-group) perpetrators. Half of the articles were manipulated, and the participants were asked to rate the articles with respect to the perceived veracity of the article and the reprehensibility of the described criminal offences. Xenophobia, but not conservatism, was associated with poorer news discernment and higher perceived veracity in the immigrant offender condition, but not in the native German offender condition. Reprehensibility was not differentially associated with xenophobia in the two origin-of-offender conditions. The fake news paradigm revealed an out-group bias with respect to the perceived veracity of media news, and this result offers an alternative to measure stereotypes about immigrants more subtly than by explicit self-report. Xenophobia seems to make people less sensitive to hints that could inform them about the falsehood of information. 2023-03-11T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/10817 Delphi study for the development and preliminary validation of an item set for the assessment of non-experts’ AI literacy Laupichler, Matthias Carl; Aster, Alexandra; Raupach, Tobias Artificial intelligence literacy is a concept that has been the focus of exhaustive research recently. However, there are very few psychometrically sound and thoroughly evaluated instruments that attempt to assess AI literacy in a valid way. Therefore, this study presents an item set to assess the AI literacy of non-experts. In the context of a Delphi expert study, 53 subject matter experts participated in three iterative questionnaire rounds to generate potential AI literacy items and assess their content validity. In addition, the experts made suggestions on how the items’ wording accuracy could be improved and evaluated the wording suggestions of the other experts. Of 47 potential items, 38 were judged relevant for inclusion in a final AI literacy questionnaire. The result is one of the first freely available AI literacy item sets and represents an important first step in assessing AI literacy and its subconstructs. Finally, the development of the items through the execution of an iterative Delphi study and the strong focus on content validity contribute to the advancement of AI literacy theory. 2023-01-12T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/10814 X-linked variations in SHROOM4 are implicated in congenital anomalies of the urinary tract and the anorectal, cardiovascular and central nervous systems Kolvenbach, Caroline; Felger, Tim; Schierbaum, Luca; Thiffault, Isabelle; Pastinen, Tomi; Szczepańska, Maria; Zaniew, Marcin; Adamczyk, Piotr; Bayat, Allan; Yilmaz, Öznur; Lindenberg, Tobias; Thiele, Holger; Hildebrandt, Friedhelm; Hinderhofer, Katrin; Moog, Ute; Hilger, Alina; Sullivan, Bonnie; Bartik, Lauren; Gnyś, Piotr; Grote, Phillip; Odermatt, Benjamin; Reutter, Heiko; Dworschak, Gabriel Background: SHROOM4 is thought to play an important role in cytoskeletal modification and development of the early nervous system. Previously, single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) or copy number variations (CNVs) in SHROOM4 have been associated with the neurodevelopmental disorder Stocco dos Santos syndrome, but not with congenital anomalies of the urinary tract and the visceral or the cardiovascular system. Methods: Here, exome sequencing and CNV analyses besides expression studies in zebrafish and mouse and knockdown (KD) experiments using a splice blocking morpholino in zebrafish were performed to study the role of SHROOM4 during embryonic development. Results: In this study, we identified putative disease-causing SNVs and CNVs in SHROOM4 in six individuals from four families with congenital anomalies of the urinary tract and the anorectal, cardiovascular and central nervous systems (CNS). Embryonic mouse and zebrafish expression studies showed Shroom4 expression in the upper and lower urinary tract, the developing cloaca, the heart and the cerebral CNS. KD studies in zebrafish larvae revealed pronephric cysts, anomalies of the cloaca and the heart, decreased eye-to-head ratio and higher mortality compared with controls. These phenotypes could be rescued by co-injection of human wild-type SHROOM4 mRNA and morpholino. Conclusion: The identified SNVs and CNVs in affected individuals with congenital anomalies of the urinary tract, the anorectal, the cardiovascular and the central nervous systems, and subsequent embryonic mouse and zebrafish studies suggest SHROOM4 as a developmental gene for different organ systems. 2022-11-15T00:00:00Z