In an effort to better identify the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, researchers have proven that they add computer simulations to cognitive testing methods, to determine the presence and severity of problems. measure behavior in children.
A mental test in ADHD is used to identify a number of symptoms and deficits, including selective attention, poor working memory, altered time comprehension, difficulty maintaining attention, and critical behavior.
According to researchers from Ohio State University, for ADHD, however, these mental tests often do not capture the complexity of the symptoms.
The advent of computer psychology – comparing a computer-like model of normal brain processes to abstract processes seen in experiments – could be an important improvement to the diagnostic process for ADHD, the report said. researchers in a new study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.
Children with ADHD take more time to make decisions while performing the activities of children who do not have the disorder, and tests have relied on average response times to explain difference.
But there is a complexity to that disorder that a computer model could help identify, providing information that clinicians, parents, and teachers can use to make life easier for children. with ADHD.
“We can use models to simulate the decision-making process and see how decisions happen over time – and work better to find out why children with ADHD take longer to make decisions, “said Nadja Ging-Jehli, lead author of the review.
The research team reviewed 50 studies of cognitive tests for ADHD and described how three common types of computer models may contribute to these tests.
The researchers offer recommendations for trial and clinical practice to achieve three main goals: improve the character of ADHD and any associated mental health studies such as anxiety and depression, improve treatment outcomes, and which can predict which children will “miss” the ADHD diagnosis as adults.
The review also identified a complex feature for ongoing ADHD research ?? a wider range of external signals as well as subtle features that are difficult to detect by the most common test methods.
Understanding that children with ADHD have so many biologically based differences suggests that one action-based test is not enough to make a meaningful diagnosis of ADHD, the researchers said.
“ADHD is not just the child who moves and rests in a chair. It is also the child who is unconscious due to the break of day. Even though that child is more immigrant and that it does not show as many symptoms as a depressed child does not mean that the child will not suffer, ”Ging-Jehli explained.
Daydreaming is especially common in girls, who are not recorded in ADHD studies almost as often as boys, she said.