title: Training sensory signal-to-noise resolution in children with ADHD in a global mental health setting.
abstract: Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impaired focus on goal-relevant signals and fail to suppress goal-irrelevant distractions. To address both these issues, we developed a novel neuroplasticity-based training program that adaptively trains the resolution of challenging sensory signals and the suppression of progressively more challenging distractions. We evaluated this sensory signal-to-noise resolution training in a small sample, global mental health study in Indian children with ADHD. The children trained for 30 h over 6 months in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Training completers showed steady and significant improvements in ADHD-associated behaviors from baseline to post training relative to controls, and benefits sustained in a 6-month follow-up. Post-training cognitive assessments showed significant positive results for response inhibition and Stroop interference tests in training completers vs controls, while measures of sustained attention and short-term memory showed nonsignificant improvement trends. Further, training-driven improvements in distractor suppression correlated with the improved ADHD symptoms. This initial study suggests utility of signal-to-noise resolution training for children with ADHD; it emphasizes the need for further research on this intervention and substantially informs the design of a larger trial.
authors.affiliation: Sandler Neurosciences Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sagar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: Sandler Neurosciences Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.|Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gazzaley
authors.affiliation: Posit Science Corporation, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Merzenich
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000379:methods*; D003463:Cues; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009622:Noise; D016896:Treatment Outcome