Neurofeedback of slow cortical potentials as an effective treatment of adult ADHD
-
1
neuroCare Group, neuroCademy, Germany
-
2
University Tübingen, Institute for Medical Psychology, Germany
-
3
SenseLabs, United States
OBJECTIVE:
Neurofeedback (NF) is a neuromodulation technique based in operant conditioning of brain activity and has been used successfully in the treatment of children with Attention Deficit-/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In this study, for the first time NF is investigated in adults with ADHD. To answer the question of specificity the relationship between treatment outcome and self-regulation ability is assessed.
METHODS: Twenty-four participants underwent 30 sessions of slow cortical potential NF. Measurements of ADHD and comorbid symptoms, as well as neurophysiological data (reaction time (RT) and RT variability (RTV) and contingent negative variation (CNV)) were performed before and after treatment, and again six months after sessions were completed. Participants were categorized into self-regulation learners and non-learners. This data is part of the data set from a RCT.
RESULTS: Significant improvements on all symptom scales were observed with medium to large effect sizes after treatment and six months post treatment. RT and RTV decreased significantly and there was a trend for an increased CNV. Half of the participants successfully learned to regulate their brain activity. In the long-term, symptoms in the group of learners improved more than in non-learners with large effect sizes.
CONCLUSION: NF is effective in treating adult ADHD long-term. The impact of self-regulation ability and possible unspecific effects still require further investigation. This study is the first to investigate the effects of NF in adults with ADHD, relating clinical outcome to self-regulation performance.
Keywords:
Neurofeedback,
slow cortical potential (SCP) training,
Adult ADHD,
CNV,
therapy
Conference:
SAN2016 Meeting, Corfu, Greece, 6 Oct - 9 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation in SAN 2016 Conference
Topic:
Symposium in Neurofeedback of Slow Cortical Potentials
Citation:
Mayer
K,
Wyckoff
SN and
Strehl
U
(2016). Neurofeedback of slow cortical potentials as an effective treatment of adult ADHD.
Conference Abstract:
SAN2016 Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2016.220.00072
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
30 Jul 2016;
Published Online:
01 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Kerstin Mayer, neuroCare Group, neuroCademy, Munich, 80331, Germany, kerstin.mayer@neurocaregroup.com