Researchers Find That Special Type of Brain Training Based on Principle of “Neurofeedback” Enables People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to Improve Their Ability To Concentrate

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects approximately 7% of children, with a two out of three chance of persisting into adulthood. This neurodevelopmental disorder is characterized by concentration difficulties, increased distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Today, ADHD is treated with pharmaceutical drugs that may have unwanted side-effects. This is why scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), Switzerland, explored a new technique called “neurofeedback,” which enables ADHD patients to train their attention, based on instant feedback from the level of their brain activity. The team of neuroscientists found that not only did the training have a positive effect on patients' concentration abilities, but also that the attention improvement was closely linked to an enhanced response from the brain--the P3 wave--which is known to reflect integration of information in the brain, with higher P3 amplitudes indicating greater attention towards detected targets. The findings have been published in the August 2021 issue of Clinical Neurophysiology. The open-access article is titled “Electrophysiological Correlates of Improved Executive Function Following EEG Neurofeedback in Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”