Short-term memory (STM) impairments are common among youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but not inherent to the disorder. Little is known about predictors driving heterogeneity in STM among youth with ADHD. Prior work (i.e., Ward et al., 2015) has shown that parasympathetic nervous system functioning may play a role explaining this heterogeneity. The current study sought to replicate and extend this study with a diverse sample of 285 children (N = 143 clinically recruited with ADHD) ages 6 to 12 years. Parents reported on child psychopathology and youth completed a visual spatial STM task while psychophysiological data (i.e., heart rate, respiration rate, skin conductance) were recorded, then derived to relevant parasympathetic (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) and sympathetic (i.e., electrodermal activity [EDA]) indexes. Youth with ADHD exhibited lower STM, lower resting RSA, and task-based RSA increase from baseline compared to typically developing peers. RSA moderated the association between STM and ADHD, such that low STM was associated with ADHD in the context of RSA increase from baseline. This was in contrast to Ward and colleagues (2015), which reported that low STM was associated with ADHD in the context of RSA withdrawal from baseline. When analyses were limited to youth with ADHD only, EDA moderated the association between STM and ADHD symptoms, such that low STM performance was associated with elevated symptoms in the context of EDA augmentation from baseline. Findings are discussed in comparison to the original study, and possible explanations for discrepancies in results are explored. Future research directions are proposed.

短期记忆 (STM) 损伤在患有注意力缺陷/多动障碍 (ADHD) 的青少年中很常见，但并非该疾病所固有的。对于导致 ADHD 青少年 STM 异质性的预测因素知之甚少。之前的工作（即 Ward 等人，2015）已​​经表明，副交感神经系统功能可能在解释这种异质性方面发挥了作用。当前的研究试图通过 285 名 6 至 12 岁儿童（临床招募的 143 名患有 ADHD 的儿童）的不同样本来重复和扩展这项研究。父母报告儿童精神病理学，青少年完成视觉空间 STM 任务，同时记录心理生理数据（即心率、呼吸频率、皮肤电导），然后导出相关的副交感神经（即呼吸性窦性心律失常 [RSA]）和交感神经（即呼吸性窦性心律失常 [RSA]）。 、皮肤电活性[EDA]）指标。与一般发育中的同龄人相比，患有多动症的青少年表现出较低的 STM、较低的静息 RSA 和基于任务的 RSA 较基线有所增加。 RSA 调节了 STM 和 ADHD 之间的关联，因此在 RSA 较基线增加的情况下，低 STM 与 ADHD 相关。这与 Ward 及其同事 (2015) 形成鲜明对比，后者报道在 RSA 从基线撤回的情况下，低 STM 与 ADHD 相关。当分析仅限于患有 ADHD 的青少年时，EDA 调节了 STM 和 ADHD 症状之间的关联，因此在 EDA 较基线增强的情况下，低 STM 表现与症状升高相关。与原始研究进行比较，讨论了结果，并探讨了结果差异的可能解释。提出了未来的研究方向。