Development of Reading Abilities in Children with ADHD Following fNIRS-Neurofeedback or EMG-Biofeedback

Abstract

Abstract. Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show deficient reading skills, which, like ADHD symptoms, are associated with limitations in neurocognitive abilities. Neurofeedback (NF) aims to improve the latter, to alleviate ADHD symptoms, and to promote school and reading performances. Whether frontal lobe-NF based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electromyogram (EMG)-biofeedback (BF), however, improve reading abilities of children with ADHD and whether these changes are associated with changes in neurocognitive abilities, has not yet been clarified. It was also unclear whether embedding trainings in virtual reality (VR) could increase their effectiveness. These questions were examined using data of 35 children with ADHD (6–11 years) who participated in 15 sessions of fNIRS-NF in VR, fNIRS-NF in 2D, or EMG-BF in VR. On average, children's reading performance improved in all training groups. Stronger improvements were found after VR trainings. Improvements in reading natural words were, on a trend level, accompanied by decreasing attention, while improvements in reading pseudowords were accompanied by improved sustained attention and response inhibition. The results suggest that fNIRS-NF and EMG-BF effectively improve reading abilities of children with ADHD, especially when training in VR.

Optical brain imaging and its application to neurofeedback

“…However, control groups (EEG- and EMG-biofeedback) also showed marginal symptom reduction and no significant group effect was found. This is in line with data of a small randomized controlled trial reporting only unspecific improvements of reading abilities in children with ADHD after 15 sessions of neurofeedback ( Blume et al, 2020 ). In patients with social anxiety disorder, 15 sessions of f NIRS neurofeedback training of prefrontal brain regions reduced social threat-related attention bias and improved social and general trait anxiety as well as depressive symptoms ( Kimmig et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Optical real-time brain imaging has demonstrated its clinical relevance and is currently tested in a variety of applications, e.g. in the treatment of stroke ( Mihara et al, 2013 ), ADHD ( Blumeet al, 2020 , Hudaket al, 2017 , Marxet al, 2014 ), social anxiety disorder ( Kimmig et al, 2019 ), autism spectrum disorder ( Liu et al, 2017 ) and schizophrenia ( Storchak et al, 2019 ). Further, protocols that were successfully tested in healthy participants are now paving the way for clinical applications of optical real-time brain imaging in neuropsychiatric disorders ( Aranyiet al, 2016 , Liet al, 2019 , Trambaiolliet al, 2018 , Xu et al, 2020 ).…”

A Review of Neurofeedback Training for Improving Sport Performance From the Perspective of User Experience

“…Many previous studies have successfully applied fNIRS to study functional brain adaptations during real sports such as playing table tennis, cycling, and climbing ( Balardin et al, 2017 ; Seidel et al, 2019 ; Carius et al, 2020 ), and obtained results difficult to obtain with other technologies. Meanwhile, although fNIRS-based NFT has been applied to emotional regulation and some neurological diseases ( Aranyi et al, 2015 ; Blume et al, 2020 ; Rieke et al, 2020 ), reports on their application to promoting sports performance are relatively rare. Therefore, we look forward to the further development of fNIRS-based SP–NFT and the further expansion of SP–NFT from the laboratory to outdoor sports.…”

Neurofeedback strategies in binge-eating disorder as predictors of EEG-neurofeedback regulation success

“…Accordingly, a study in healthy participants interpreted the lack of differences in the mental strategies used for various types of feedback signals (i.e., bars vs. worm avatars) in terms of the lacking match with participants' preferences (Autenrieth et al, 2020). Importantly though, patient populations, as opposed to healthy participants, likely have a higher intrinsic motivation to perform better during NF treatment (Haugg et al, 2021) due to their goal to alleviate disease-specific symptoms (Blume et al, 2020). Indeed, the high burden of suffering of patients with BED relative to healthy participants may have increased their motivation to perform well during NF.…”