The Influence Of Television Pacing On Attention And Executive Functioning

Television shows, especially cartoons, are one of the most common types of media in children’s lives. Although there is a well-established connection between television exposure and difficulties with attention, it is unclear if all types of television are equally impactful. Given the amount of time children are exposed to television, there is a need to better understand which components of shows may or may not impact one’s attentional and executive functioning abilities. One such factor is the pace of the content. The current study expands on this limited area of the literature by utilizing a 9-minute 30-second long cartoon video, which has been edited at both a fast and slow pace, to examine the influence of pace on measures of attention and executive functioning (the Stop Signal Task and the Attentional Network Test) in both Typically Developing children (N = 24) and children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; N = 17). Two (group; children with ADHD vs. Typically Developing children) x two (pace; fast vs. slow) ANCOVAs were conducted separately with each outcome measure as the dependent variable, group (ADHD and Typically Developing) and pace (fast and slow) as the independent variables, and IQ and Internalizing Problems as covariates. Findings suggested that although the majority of results were non-significant, effect sizes for group and pace (and associated covariates) varied across outcome measures. The Alerting and Executive Control ANT Networks also had non-significant but small effect sizes for the group by pace interactions. Planned comparisons of estimated marginal means revealed a non-significant and small effect of pace for children with ADHD, but no effect for Typically Developing children, for both interactions. Implications for those who work with and care for children are reviewed, and study limitations and future research directions are discussed

Closed-loop digital meditation for neurocognitive and behavioral development in adolescents with childhood neglect.

Adverse childhood experiences are linked to poor attentive behaviors during adolescence, as well as increased risk for mental health disorders in adults. However, no study has yet tested targeted interventions to optimize neurocognitive processes in this population. Here, we investigated closed-loop digital interventions in a double-blind randomized controlled study in adolescents with childhood neglect, and evaluated the outcomes using multimodal assessments of neuroimaging, cognitive, behavioral, and academic evaluations. In the primary neuroimaging results, we demonstrate that a closed-loop digital meditation intervention can strengthen functional connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in the cingulo-opercular network, which is critically developing during the adolescent period. Second, this intervention enhanced sustained attention and interference-resolution abilities, and also reduced behavioral hyperactivity at a 1-year follow-up. Superior academic performance was additionally observed in adolescents who underwent the digital meditation intervention. Finally, changes in dACC functional connectivity significantly correlated with improvements in sustained attention, hyperactivity, and academic performance. This first study demonstrates that closed-loop digital meditation practice can facilitate development of important aspects of neurocognition and real-life behaviors in adolescents with early childhood neglect

Automatic extraction and detection of characteristic movement patterns in children with ADHD Based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and acceleration images

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behaviors. In particular, children have difficulty keeping still exhibiting increased fine and gross motor activity. This paper focuses on analyzing the data obtained from two tri-axial accelerometers (one on the wrist of the dominant arm and the other on the ankle of the dominant leg) worn during school hours by a group of 22 children (11 children with ADHD and 11 paired controls). Five of the 11 ADHD diagnosed children were not on medication during the study. The children were not explicitly instructed to perform any particular activity but followed a normal session at school alternating classes of little or moderate physical activity with intermediate breaks of more prominent physical activity. The tri-axial acceleration signals were converted into 2D acceleration images and a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was trained to recognize the differences between non-medicated ADHD children and their paired controls. The results show that there were statistically significant differences in the way the two groups moved for the wrist accelerometer (t-test p-value <0.05). For the ankle accelerometer statistical significance was only achieved between data from the non-medicated children in the experimental group and the control group. Using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to automatically extract embedded acceleration patterns and provide an objective measure to help in the diagnosis of ADHD, an accuracy of 0.875 for the wrist sensor and an accuracy of 0.9375 for the ankle sensor was achieved

Working memory in children with developmental disorders

The aim of the present study was to directly compare working memory skills across students with different developmental disorders to investigate whether the uniqueness of their diagnosis would impact memory skills. The authors report findings confirming differential memory profiles on the basis of the following developmental disorders: Specific Language Impairment, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Asperger syndrome(AS). Specifically, language impairments were associated with selective deficits in verbal short-term and working memory, whereas motor impairments (DCD) were associated with selective deficits in visuospatial short-term and working memory. Children with attention problems were impaired in working memory in both verbal and visuospatial domains, whereas the children with AS had deficits in verbal short-term memory but not in any other memory component. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of support for learning

Racial Biases in Parent-Teacher Ratings of Childhood ADHD Symptoms: An Examination of Prejudice and Stereotypes

A robust body of literature has documented systematic parent-teacher discrepancies in ratings of children’s ADHD symptoms (inattentive, hyperactive, or impulsive behaviors) as a function of child race. Past research has suggested a potential role of teachers’ racial bias in higher ratings of Black children’s ADHD behaviors relative to Black parents’ ratings. The present study sought to better characterize these racial biases by examining implicit and explicit measures of racial prejudice and racial stereotypes, as well as Black parents’ perceptions of those biases as predictors of their ratings of Black children’s ADHD behaviors. Results suggested that white teachers’ explicit racial ADHD stereotypes predicted more biased ratings of Black boys’ ADHD symptoms. Moreover, perceptions of systemic racism predicted Black parents’ lower ratings of Black boys’ ADHD symptoms, relative to white boys. Finally, mediational analyses across the whole sample indicated that white teachers demonstrated more implicit racial prejudice than did Black parents, which in turn predicted more biased ratings of Black boys’ hyperactivity symptoms. No measures of racial bias predicted biased ratings of Black girls’ ADHD symptoms. Future research should aim to better understand the roles of these racial biases in assessments of other common types of childhood psychopathology, and develop interventions to reduce the impacts of racial biases in psychological assessments for children of color to promote racial equity in mental health care

Dance/Movement Therapy As An Intervention In The Treatment of Internet Gaming Disorder

This paper illuminates how the field of dance movement therapy can expand its reach to different populations in need of kinesthetic empathy. This heuristic review discusses the treatment option of dance/movement therapy for Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). Dance/movement therapy is unique in the way it addresses the personal unconscious through creative non-verbal communication. Video gaming is a worldwide pastime that is captivating and fun for millions of people although the present concern is when video gaming becomes an uncontrolled behavioral addiction. Dance/movement theorist Trudy Schoop asserted, “It is only through the body that humans experience reality.” It is this researcher’s opinion that human interaction is a vital necessity to our well-being and cannot be replaced by digital contact through devices we have created to physically separate ourselves from one another. There is currently no literature on the use of dance/movement therapy as a treatment for IGD, thus this thesis explores how video games affect our minds and bodies and proposes that dance/movement therapy can be an effective intervention

Image and Evidence: The Study of Attention through the Combined Lenses of Neuroscience and Art

: Levy, EK 2012, ‘An artistic exploration of inattention blindness’, in Frontiers Hum Neurosci, vol. 5, ISSN=1662-5161.Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This study proposed that new insights about attention, including its phenomenon and pathology, would be provided by combining perspectives of the neurobiological discourse about attention with analyses of artworks that exploit the constraints of the attentional system. To advance the central argument that art offers a training ground for the attentional system, a wide range of contemporary art was analysed in light of specific tasks invoked. The kinds of cognitive tasks these works initiate with respect to the attentional system have been particularly critical to this research. Attention was explored within the context of transdisciplinary art practices, varied circumstances of viewing, new neuroscientific findings, and new approaches towards learning. Research for this dissertation required practical investigations in a gallery setting, and this original work was contextualised and correlated with pertinent neuroscientific approaches. It was also concluded that art can enhance public awareness of attention disorders and assist the public in discriminating between medical and social factors through questioning how norms of behaviour are defined and measured. This territory was examined through the comparative analysis of several diagnostic tests for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), through the adaptation of a methodology from economics involving patent citation in order to show market incentives, and through examples of data visualisation. The construction of an installation and collaborative animation allowed participants to experience first-hand the constraints on the attentional system, provoking awareness of our own “normal” physiological limitations. The embodied knowledge of images, emotion, and social context that are deeply embedded in art practices appeared to be capable of supplementing neuroscience’s understanding of attention and its disorders

Coming to terms with risk-factors for obesity and eating disorders in childhood and early adulthood: a contribution to the bio-psycho-social etiology model of pathological eating behavior

This thesis incorporates three studies addressing different bio-psycho-social correlates of eating pathology. Each of the presented publications is reflecting a new development in the corresponding research field, as it employs novel methodological approaches and provides enhancements to the already existing etiological models. In the Publication 1, psychosocial factors such as familial role modeling and social network were investigated on the background of peer selection using an immersive virtual reality environment. School-aged children were confronted with normal weight and overweight avatars that were either eating or playing. As a main result, parental BMI was the strongest predictor for the children’s minimal distance to the avatars. In the Publication 2, body dissatisfaction (BD), emotion dysregulation, and a specific type of food-related cognitive distortion (Thought-Shape Fusion, TSF) were integrated in a model of disturbed eating and compensatory behavior (DECB). Using cross-sectional data from an online-survey, the model was tested on a subpopulation of healthy young male university students. The results of this study indicated the susceptibility to body-related cognitive distortions (TSF) as a potential mediator in the relationship between BD and disturbed eating in men. In the study presented in the Publication 3, impulsivity impairments occurring within clinical symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as well as the two nonverbal self-control strategies, attentional deployment and self-touch movement were examined as psychological factors affecting the ability to delay food-related gratification (DOG). The findings suggest that besides attentional deployment, the left-handed self-touch constitutes an effective strategy that might enhance the ability to resist snacking during the DOG