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）是一种非常普遍的疾病，每年造成数十亿美元的费用，因此确实需要额外的非药物治疗。维持注意力控制的缺陷表现为个体内部在持续注意力任务中的表现不一致，表现正常的时期和表现不佳的时期被认为反映了“注意力不集中”，一些研究小组认为这是ADHD的一个重要组成部分。我们的团队成员对持续注意力控制的行为和神经生理基础进行了研究，揭示了与持续关注目标、抑制干扰物和走神有关的表现和大脑信号的次慢波动。我们已经创造了一种创新的（正在申请专利）产品，直接针对ADHD患者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现实生活的所有环境中训练患有多动症的成年人。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，包括积极地将三个注意力控制组成部分的体验感转移到现实生活活动中（持续集中，抑制分心和走神）。该i期项目旨在证明SAC产品在训练成人ADHD患者持续注意力控制方面的有效性。在Aim-1中，我们建立在现有应用程序的现有代码框架和后端数据系统的基础上，完成剩下的一组训练应用程序的编程和美工，并针对成人ADHD患者进行优化。在Aim-2中，我们测试了SAC训练的效果——100名受试者将被随机分配到治疗条件（SAC训练）或控制条件（具有相同的应用程序使用和接触），但没有假设提供训练益处的因素。我们将确定每种情况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方法比较治疗和控制条件下的改善量。

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.