Quiet eye training-based intervention can ameliorate inhibitory control but not visuospatial working memory in children with ADHD.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of quiet eye training (QET) on inhibitory control, visuospatial working memory (WM), and tonic attention in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-eight children with ADHD aged 9-12 years were randomly assigned to QET and control (CON) groups. The QET group practiced targeted hand-eye tasks within a QET protocol developed to optimize controlled attention and gaze through eye fixations. We used the go/no-go (GNG) test, the Corsi test, and the reaction test of alertness (RTA) to verify the effects of QET on inhibition control, WM, and tonic attention. QET group showed significantly shorter reaction times, a higher number of correct responses, and a lower number of omissions in the GNG inhibition test after QET as compared to the pre-measurements, whereas the CON group did not demonstrate significant changes in this test. The measures of WM (Corsi test) and tonic attention (RTA) did not change significantly with the QET-based intervention. The study demonstrated that the QET protocol, which includes instructions and a video demonstration to optimize eye fixation on a target during aiming tasks, is acceptable and usable for children with ADHD. Overall, a short-term, 5-week visuomotor training intervention based on the quiet eye paradigm was shown to be effective in improving inhibitory control and focused visual attention, but not visuospatial WM and intrinsic attention in 9-12-year-old children with inattentive or combined ADHD.