Application Of Real-Time Finger Force Feedback Paradigm In Clinical Diagnosis And Treatment Of Children With ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood,with a high prevalence in China.It will create a substantial burden for the individual,their family,and the community.However,there is an urgent need for objective and reliable auxiliary evaluation methods and non-pharmacological approaches for ADHD in clinical diagnosis and treatment.The real-time continuous finger force feedback task,as a new technology,records the finger pressure of subjects in real-time through high-frequency sampling rates to monitor the fluctuation of subjects’ attention,and has the potential for clinical application.This study aims to explore whether the real-time continuous finger force feedback task can objectively assist in evaluating children with different subtypes of ADHD,and the effectiveness of finger force combined with EEG feedback technology in intervention treatment for children with ADHD.For this purpose,we conducted two studies.Study 1 examined the behavioral characteristics of children with different subtypes of ADHD in real-time continuous finger force feedback task.31 inattention type of ADHD(ADHD-I)children,11 combined type of ADHD(ADHD-C)children and 28 traditional developing children(TDC)were included in the final data analysis.The study first calculated the traditional indicator of intra-individual variability,the coefficient of variation of finger force.On this basis,the finger force amplitude at the higher and lower frequency bands was calculated.Then compare the difference of the coefficient of variation of finger force between children with different ADHD subtypes and TDC.The interaction between the frequency band and different ADHD subtypes was computed by RMANOVA.Finally,independent sample t-test was performed on the amplitude of finger force in different frequency bands of children with different ADHD subtypes and TDC.In order to more strictly control the impact of gender and age on the experimental results,we will repeat the above statistical analysis after gender and age matching for all subjects.The results of study 1 showed that compared with the ADHD-C children,the ADHD-I children had more abnormalities in the low-frequency fluctuation of finger force than TDC.ADHD-I children have significantly higher finger force amplitudes in three lower frequency bands of 0.002-0.001 Hz,0.01-0.027 Hz and 0.027-0.037 Hz than TDC.In addition,in gender and age matched samples,both ADHD subtype groups showed greater variability in the coefficient of variation of finger force than the control group,as well as higher amplitude of finger force in the frequency bands of 1-4Hz,30-50 Hz and0.073-0.197 Hz.The results of study 1 demonstrate that the real-time continuous finger force feedback task can be used as a clinically assisted evaluation method to stably identify ADHD-I children and ADHD-C children.Study 2 explored the effectiveness of finger force combined with EEG feedback intervention in children with ADHD.16 children with ADHD were enrolled in the experimental group and treated by finger force combined with EEG feedback intervention method developed by our research group.17 children with ADHD were treated with traditional EEG biofeedback intervention method in the control group.The effectiveness of the intervention was measured by calculating scores from the Swanson,Nolan,and Pelham Rating Scale,the Conners Parent Rating Scale,the Questionnaire-Children with Difficulties and the mean value of reaction time,the standard deviation of reaction time and the coefficient of variation of reaction time of the visual two-choice continuous performance task.The differences in scale scores and reaction time indicators among different intervention conditions groups were analyzed,as well as the changes in scale scores and reaction time indicators of children in each group before and after intervention.The second study showed that the intervention method of finger force combined with EEG feedback can effectively relieve ADHD children’s attention deficit symptoms and school problems.And the relieve of inattention is significantly related to the decrease of learning problems.In the results of visual two-choice continuous performance task,the mean and standard deviation of reaction time in children in the finger force combined with EEG feedback group after intervention were significantly reduced compared to those before intervention.However,there was no statistically significant difference in the scale scores and response time indicators between the two groups,namely,the finger force combined with EEG feedback group and the EEG biofeedback group.The results of study 2 indicate that the finger force combined with EEG feedback intervention technology is effective in relieving the symptoms of children with ADHD.In summary,the above results lay the foundation for the application of real-time continuous finger force feedback technology in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of ADHD children,provide a theoretical basis for future research on the behavioral periodic variation of ADHD,and provide a new treatment scheme for non-pharmacological intervention treatment of clinical ADHD children.