Objective: To characterize heterogeneity in adults with ADHD we aimed to identify subgroups within the adult ADHD spectrum, which differ in their cognitive profile.
Method: Neuropsychological data from adults with ADHD ( n = 133) and healthy control participants ( n = 132) were used in a confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting six cognitive factors were correlated across participants to form networks. We used a community detection algorithm to cluster these networks into subgroups.
Results: Both the ADHD and control group separated into three profiles that differed in cognitive performance. Profile 1 was characterized by aberrant attention and inhibition, profile 2 by increased delay discounting, and profile 3 by atypical working memory and verbal fluency.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that qualitative differences in neuropsychological performance exist in both control and ADHD adult individuals. This extends prior findings in children with and without ADHD and provides a framework to parse participants into well-defined subgroups.
Keywords: adult ADHD; delay discounting; executive functions; heterogeneity; neuropsychology.