Visual Entrainment Improving Working Memory of Children With and Without ADHD/ASD: Preliminary Observations

Abstract

Background: Children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders, often experience challenges in memory functioning. This literature directs to the imperative implications of working memory (WM), especially in academics. Objective: Given the distinct nature of WM in children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders, our study explored the role of alpha and beta visual entrainment on their WM performances. Methods: NCPs ( n = 19) and CPs with ADHD and comorbid conditions of autism ( n = 15) participated in our study. We adopted a repeated measure intervention-based design along with alpha-and-beta visual entrainment. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up data were collected using digit span tests. Electroencephalography (EEG) was further recorded during the entrainment phase. We administered statistical and coherence factor analysis to derive our results. Results: We observed that experimental participants performed better following the visual entrainment sessions. We further observed that alpha entrainment affected the digit span scores among clinical participants, whereas beta entrainment affected the performance of the nonclinical group. The entrainment effects additionally varied depending on the participant’s clinical symptoms. However, we found negligible long-term entrainment effects on their WM. Conclusion: Our observations explore the probability of individual effects of alpha and beta entrainment sessions on children’s WM performances and open an avenue for further research in the clinical domain. The study suggests translating brainwave entrainment into an intervention to promote cognition among children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders.