Neuronal oscillations in children with ADHD: A journey towards the development of potential new treatments for children with ADHD

Abstract

EEG-neurofeedback is being applied to treat children with ADHD in the Netherlands. Vollebregt and colleagues designed a placebo-controlled study with random assignment to a treatment group or placebo-treatment group, to investigate its efficacy. Results did not provide evidence for a positive treatment effect in children with ADHD that was superior to placebo. Vollebregt and colleagues subsequently investigated ‘lateralized alpha modulation’ using EEG in children with and without ADHD. This modulation is usually measured in healthy adults when directing attention. Results demonstrated that typically developing 7-10 year old children already displayed a similar pattern as adults did in previous research. Boys with ADHD however, did not show such a pattern. For girls, we could not confirm a difference between ADHD and typical development due to a low sample-size. Future research should demonstrate if methodologically improved neurofeedback paradigms, possibly making use of ‘lateralized alpha modulation’, could work.