Through the use of magnetic resonance imaging, a recent study indicated that 13 preschool children (ages 4-5) with ADHD had smaller volumes in the caudate nucleus than 13 preschool children without ADHD. The caudate nucleus is associated with learning, memory and motor control. In addition, the caudate volumes were significantly correlated with parental reports of […]
A recent study published in Neurology compared 25 boys and girls with ADHD and 25 boys and girls without ADHD. All of the children were right handed. They were asked to perform left handed finger tapping. Using video and a recording device measuring finger movements, the children with ADHD exhibited more mirror overflow movements with […]
The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University has published a paper entitled Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function. This paper provides an overview on executive function and how it develops in children. Executive functions include working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive or mental […]
A recent blog post at the Eidie Neurolearning Blog discusses research from Germany on rewards for boys with ADHD. This small study indicated that impulsivity was significantly reduced when rewards (monetary or social ) were incentive to complete a task. It is discussed that if impulsivity can be reduced so greatly based on motivation, perhaps […]
Behavioral and Brain Functions, an open source journal, recently published research on the effects of white noise on 51 school aged children. The results indicated that playing white noise during school helped to significantly improve the attention spans of normally inattentive students. On the other hand, the students who were normally attentive showed a significant […]
Recent research in the Journal of Attention Disorders states that a Western diet may be linked to ADHD. A Western diet was described as high in take out food, confectioneries, processed, fried and refined foods. A healthy diet was described as a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and fish. Almost 1800 […]
Current Opinions in Psychiatry published a review of motor coordination and emotional-behavioral problems in children. The author begin by discussing measurement issues with regards to developmental coordination disorder (DCD) i.e. lack of specific definition of exactly how much a child needs to be delayed to get a diagnosis of DCD and lack of consistant terminology […]
An interesting study was published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics on teacher’s assessment of inattentive symptoms. Three groups of children were followed: 27 first graders, 24 fourth graders and 28 first through fourth graders with a diagnosis of ADHD. The children were rated twice (12-14 months apart) on their inattentive symptoms by […]
In a recent study published in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 49 children with a mean age of 5 yrs 6 months were evaluated with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC). The children were diagnosed or at risk for developing ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental coordination disorder (DCD) or no diagnosis. All the […]
Research was published in the Journal of Attention Disorders to determine if sensory overresponsivity (SOR) impacts the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in children with ADHD. Twenty four children with ADHD were divided into two groups (SOR and nonSOR) based on the Sensory Overresponsivity Inventory. The control group was 24 children without ADHD. Salivary cortisol samples […]