Video Game 'Rewires' ADHD Brain to Improve Attention
-
A brain-computer interface (BCI)–based video gaming system improves attention in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by rewiring abnormal brain networks that regulate attention, suggest preliminary findings of the first brain imaging study to test the system.
-
@kamal The BCI-based attention training gaming system consists of a headband with mounted electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that transmit EEG readings to the computer through Bluetooth. Players use their brain waves to control an avatar to complete a task, such as running around an island in the shortest time possible. The more attentive the player is, the faster the avatar runs. The player is presented with challenges that target, measure, and teach attention and inhibitory control skills. The brain imaging study, part of a larger randomized, controlled study of 172 children with ADHD, included 18 boys (mean age, 9 years) who played the game for 20 minutes 3 days per week for 8 weeks and a matched wait-list control arm of 11 boys with ADHD who received no intervention.