Training Attentional Awareness and Control in ADHD

描述(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，每年导致数十亿美元的成本，因此需要额外的非药物治疗。注意控制缺陷表现为个体在持续注意任务中的不一致表现，表现为表现正常的时期和其他表现不佳的时期，被认为是注意力不集中的表现，被几个小组认为是ADHD的重要组成部分。我们的团队成员对维持注意力控制的行为和神经生理学基础进行的研究表明，与持续关注目标、抑制分心和走神有关的表现和大脑信号出现了超缓慢的波动。我们已经创造了一种创新的(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。持续注意控制(SAC)训练利用无处不在的移动应用程序来训练患有ADHD的成年人在现实生活的所有背景下。我们的方法结合了建立注意控制技能和注意控制意识，包括主动地将三个注意控制成分的经验感转移到现实生活活动中(持续聚焦、抑制分心和走神)。这个第一阶段的项目旨在展示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，我们建立在现有应用程序和后端数据系统的现有代码框架上，为剩余的培训应用程序集完成编程和美工，并为患有ADHD的成年人优化它们。在AIM-2中，我们测试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)或控制条件下，使用相同的APP和接触，但没有假设提供培训好处的因素。我们将确定在每种情况下训练前和训练后的改善程度，并使用行为和神经生理结果测量来比较治疗条件和对照条件下的这些改善情况。

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.