Researchers In Singapore Develop Video Game That Uses Brain Wave Monitoring to Treat ADHD
Although there are a number of drugs to treat
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (
ADHD), they can have some pretty serious side effects. Researchers in Singapore at the country’s Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Duke-NUS (National University of Singapore) Medical School, and A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), have developed a system that combines neuromonitoring with video games to help kids improve their
ADHD symptoms. Neeuro Pte Ltd. is a local company that has been spun off to commercialize the technology.
A randomized controlled trial of the prototype of the technology was successfully conducted in the lab, but now the more mature version of the technology is being offered to a select group of kids to take home.
The platform consists of Neeuro’s electroencephalography “SenzeBand” along with a Samsung tablet. The child simply puts on the band and fires up a video game called CogoLand. The system can track the mental focus that the child is currently experiencing, and can adjust the gameplay, as well as bring up prompts accordingly.
In studies involving the above mentioned platform, children who underwent training using the system showed improvements in brain areas dedicated to attention and task-orientation, as was confirmed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The recent study, in children who are being treated by Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health and who will continue receiving their regular therapy, will evaluate the longer term effects of the new therapy under normal at-home conditions.
Professor Guan Cuntai, technical lead of the system and scientific advisor to Neeuro told
Thailand Medical News, “Our technology can accurately quantify a person’s attention level in real-time using a machine learning algorithm and, from there, develop a unique patented personalised training programme using a feed-forward concept for cognitive training,” “Further improvements have been made in recent iterations by capitalising on the latest deep learning approaches with our large dataset.”
Reference: A randomized controlled trial of a brain-computer interface based attention training program for ADHD, Choon Guan Lim , Xue Wei Wendy Poh, Shuen Sheng Daniel Fung, Cuntai Guan, Dianne Bautista, Yin Bun Cheung, Haihong Zhang, Si Ning Yeo, Ranga Krishnan, PLOS ONE Journal,
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216225
For more details, visit: https://www.neeuro.com/
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