Training Attentional Awareness and Control in ADHD

描述（由申请人提供）：注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）是一种高度流行的疾病，每年产生数十亿美元的费用，因此需要额外的非药物治疗。注意力控制的缺陷表现为持续注意力任务上的个体内表现不一致，表现正常的时期和表现不佳的其他时期被认为反映了“注意力不集中”，并且被几个团体认为是ADHD的重要组成部分。我们的团队成员对持续注意力控制的行为和神经生理学基础的研究揭示了表现和大脑信号的超慢波动，这些信号与持续注意目标、抑制干扰和走神有关。我们创造了一种创新的（正在申请专利的）产品，直接针对ADHD持续注意力控制的这三个组成部分。持续注意力控制（SAC）训练利用无处不在的移动应用程序在真实的生活的所有环境中训练患有ADHD的成年人。我们的方法结合了建立注意力控制技能和注意力控制意识，包括将注意力控制的三个组成部分的经验感主动转移到真实的生活活动中（持续专注，抑制分心和走神）。这个第一阶段项目的目的是证明SAC产品在训练ADHD成人持续注意力控制方面的有效性。在Aim-1中，我们建立在当前应用程序和后端数据系统的现有代码框架上，以完成其余训练应用程序的编程和设计，并为ADHD成年人进行优化。在Aim-2中，我们测试了SAC培训的有效性- 100名受试者将被随机分配到治疗条件（SAC培训）或对照条件，具有等同的应用程序使用和接触，但没有假设提供培训益处的因素。我们将确定每种条件下训练前和训练后的改善量，并使用行为和神经生理学结果测量来比较治疗和对照条件之间的这些改善。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent disorder, incurring billions of dollars of costs annually, for which there is a rel need for additional non-pharmacologic treatments. Deficits in maintaining attentional control manifest as inconsistent intra-individual performance on sustained attention tasks with periods of normal performance and other periods of poor performance thought to reflect "inattention", and is considered by several groups to be an important component of ADHD. Research by our team members on the behavioral and neurophysiological bases of sustaining attentional control reveal infra-slow fluctuations in performance and in brain signals related to sustained attention to targets, suppression of distractors and mind wandering. We have created an innovative (patent pending) product that directly targets these three components of sustained attentional control in ADHD. The Sustained Attentional Control (SAC) training utilizes the ubiquity of mobile-apps to train adults with ADHD in all contexts of real life. Our approach combines building attentional control skills with awareness of attentional control and includes active transfer of the experiential sense of three attentional control components to real life activities (sustained focus, suppression of distractions and mind wandering). This Phase-I project is aimed at demonstrating the efficacy of the SAC product for training sustained attentional control in adults with ADHD. In Aim-1 we build on the existing code framework of our current apps and the back-end data system, to complete the programming and artwork for the remaining set of training apps and optimize them for adults with ADHD. In Aim-2 we test the efficacy of SAC training - 100 subjects will be randomly assigned to either a Treatment Condition (SAC training), or Control Condition with equivalent app usage and contact, but without factors hypothesized to provide training benefits. We will determine the amount of improvement between Pre- and Post- Training in each condition and compare these improvements between Treatment and Control conditions using behavioral and neurophysiological outcome measures.