Educational attainment is one of the phenotypes with the strongest negative genetic correlation with ADHD, as demonstrated above, and cognitive impairments in ADHD are well described37. To further explore how ADHD risk variants affect specific cognitive domains, we assessed the association of ADHD polygenic scores (PGS) with 15 cognitive measures in the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC)38,39. This cohort is from the greater Philadelphia area and includes individuals, 8–21 years of age, who received medical care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Network. The subsample of the PNC cohort (v1 release) of 4,973 individuals with European descent was utilized in this study. The Computerized Neurocognitive Battery40 was used to assess cognitive performance in the study participants. The battery consists of 14 tests in five domains: executive control, episodic memory, complex cognitive processing, social cognition and sensorimotor speed. Additionally, the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-4)41 was used as a proxy measure for overall IQ39.
