Comparing Auditory Noise Treatment with Stimulant Medication on Cognitive Task Performance in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Results from a Pilot Study

Background: Recent research has shown that acoustic white noise (80 dB) can improve task performance in people with attention deficits and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This is attributed to the phenomenon of stochastic resonance in which a certain amount of noise can improve performance in a brain that is not working at its optimum. We compare here the effect of noise exposure with the effect of stimulant medication on cognitive task performance in ADHD. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of auditory noise exposure with stimulant medication for ADHD children on a cognitive test battery. A group of typically developed children (TDC) took the same tests as a comparison. Methods: Twenty children with ADHD of combined or inattentive subtypes and twenty TDC matched for age and gender performed three different tests (word recall, spanboard and n-back task) during exposure to white noise (80 dB) and in a silent condition. The ADHD children were tested with and without central stimulant medication. Results: In the spanboard- and the word recall tasks, but not in the 2-back task, white noise exposure led to significant improvements for both non-medicated and medicated ADHD children. No significant effects of medication were found on any of the three tasks. Conclusion: This pilot study shows that exposure to white noise resulted in a task improvement that was larger than the one with stimulant medication thus opening up the possibility of using auditory noise as an alternative, non-pharmacological treatment of cognitive ADHD symptoms

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Differences in Speech Recognition Between Children with Attention Deficits and Typically Developed Children Disappear when Exposed to 65 dB of Auditory Noise

The most common neuropsychiatric condition in the in children is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), affecting approximately 6-9 % of the population. ADHD is distinguished by inattention and hyperactive, impulsive behaviors as well as poor performance in various cognitive tasks often leading to failures at school. Sensory and perceptual dysfunctions have also been noticed. Prior research has mainly focused on limitations in executive functioning where differences are often explained by deficits in pre-frontal cortex activation. Less notice has been given to sensory perception and subcortical functioning in ADHD. Recent research has shown that children with ADHD diagnosis have a deviant auditory brain stem response compared to healthy controls. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the speech recognition threshold differs between attentive and children with ADHD symptoms in two environmental sound conditions, with and without external noise. Previous research has namely shown that children with attention deficits can benefit from white noise exposure during cognitive tasks and here we investigate if noise benefit is present during an auditory perceptual task. For this purpose we used a modified Hagerman’s speech recognition test where children with and without attention deficits performed a binaural speech recognition task to assess the speech recognition threshold in no noise and noise conditions (65 dB). Results showed that the inattentive group displayed a higher speech recognition threshold than typically developed children (TDC) and that the difference in speech recognition threshold disappeared when exposed to noise at supra threshold level. From this we conclude that inattention can partly be explained by sensory perceptual limitations that can possibly be ameliorated through noise exposure

Figure 4A. Performance on Go/No-Go task (executive) as a function of attention ability and noise level.

<p><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 75, 85 dB. ** (p<.001) indicates significant differences between super- and sub attentive in 65 and 85 dB conditions.</i><b>Figure 4B. Performance on Spanboard task (executive) as a function of attention ability and noise level.</b><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 75, 85 dB. * (p<.05) and ** (p<.001) indicates significant differences between groups.</i></p

Figure 3A. Performance on Word recall task (non-executive) as a function of attention ability and noise level.

<p><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 70, 75 dB, speech level ≈ 75 dB; * (p<.05) and ** (p<.001) indicates significant differences between super- and sub-attentive groups.</i><b>Figure 3B. Performance on Word recognize task (non-executive) as a function of attention ability and noise level.</b><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 70, 75 dB, speech level ≈ 75 dB; * (p<.05) and ** (p<.001) indicates significant differences between super- and sub, normal-attentive groups in 65 and 75 dB conditions.</i></p

Performance on executive function tasks as a function of attention ability and noise level.

<p><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 75, 85 dB; * indicates a significant difference between groups in the 65 dB condition</i> (<i>F</i>(2,86) = 6.36, <i>p</i> = .003).</p

Performance on non-executive function tasks as a function of attention ability and noise level.

<p><i>Note: White noise levels were 65, 70, 75 dB, speech level ≈ 75 dB; * indicates a significant difference between groups in the 65 dB condition</i> (<i>F</i>(2,86) = 8.18, <i>p</i> = .001).</p

Group characteristics – Sub-attentive (Sub), Normal-attention (Normal) and Super-attentive groups (Super).

<p><i>Note: Post-hoc comparisons are shown where p<.05; Sub = Sub-attentive, N = normal attention, Sp = Super-attentive.</i></p><p>Group characteristics – Sub-attentive (Sub), Normal-attention (Normal) and Super-attentive groups (Super).</p