ADHD Attention Symptoms Improve With Brain Training Game:

ADHD is a disorder characterized by inattentiveness and/or impulsivity and hyperactivity.  Originally inspired by concerns about the prevalence of stimulant treatment, and a curiosity about whether or not so-called “brain training” games are effective to their claims, I wondered if video games could perhaps find a clinical application in people with ADHD.  After a literature review, I discovered that some past studies have found that brain training games do not generalize to overall cognitive ability well but can increase cognitive performance in a specific task being trained.  Brain training games selected for improving attention could increase attention capabilities in those with ADHD as it does for those without the conditions.  The research question was therefore whether or not students with ADHD got a greater benefit from the brain training games than those without ADHD, thus “closing the gap” so to speak. Subjects were given a brain training regimen with the game Brain Age on the Nintendo DS and before and after attention scores on the Stroop Test were compared.  A statistical comparison of means only found marginal significance (p = 0.06). However, with such a small subject pool (n₁ = 15; n₂ = 15) this is a promising preliminary result and indicates a good possibility for higher significance with more subjects should the study be replicated in the future.  In the graph above, it may be a little difficult to see, but the rate of attentional improvement for subjects who had ADHD (7.40 pts/day) was faster in the same span of time than for the control group (3.38 pts/day). We can begin to see the gap closing between the two lines. This study was fairly short — a 10 minute regimen per day for 28 days. If the rate of improvement for each group were to continue at their same rates (which we can’t know for sure), then the gap would close between the groups in 9 weeks.