Global : Ideas : Bank - Home   09 February 2010
ABOUTNEWSTHE IDEAS BANKSUCCESS STORIESPRACTICAL HELPGIB STOREREGISTERDONATIONSFORUMSHOME
You're currently not logged in, Please LOGIN or REGISTER
SEARCH THE BANK
Other Stuff
Got a project to change the world? Be a social entrepreneur!
Got a project to change the world? Be a social entrepreneur!
What's next for Global Ideas Bank? Read here
What's next for Global Ideas Bank? Read here
Let me count the ways....and buy the book
Let me count the ways....and buy the book
Independent funeral advice + woodland burial
Independent funeral advice + woodland burial
A blog about social entrepreneurs and social enterprise
A blog about social entrepreneurs and social enterprise
Idea Detail
Using video games to treat attention deficit disorder
Score
74%
56 votes, Feasibility 0% Originality 0% Humour 0%
For children who suffer from attention deficit disorder, playing video games might help treatment of the disorder and improve attention spans. In a recent study, researchers used specially adapted Sony Playstations to help train the children to modify their brain waves. Research has shown that by learning to increase waves to about 12 Hz, patients are much more able to relax and concentrate on the matter in hand; this is normally done by showing brain wave data on a computer screen.

'As the child's brain waves approached an "optimal pattern", the controller would become more responsive, thus encouraging the child to produce those brainwave patterns to succeed at the game'


Rather than trying to get hyperactive children to sit and observe their fluctuating brain waves on a computer, though, the researchers decided to use Playstations. Sensors attached to each child's scalp measured his or her brain waves, and these signals were then transmitted through a processing unit to the Playstation controllers. As the child's brain waves approached an 'optimal pattern', the controller would become more responsive, thus encouraging the child to produce those brainwave patterns to succeed at the game.

The researchers who conducted the study worked in tandem with NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia who had patented similar technology to measure pilot's responses in flight simulators. With NASA's help, the special game-playing consoles helped the children with ADD who were tested achieve improvements in half the normal time. As the lead researcher Olafur Palsson says, "Their brains were lured into changing their behaviour in a healthy way."

NASA are now looking into producing a consumer version of the machine, but one company, East3, are already releasing a video game-based attention trainer in 2001. Their attention trainer will reveal brain wave activity to the player in real time, and thus teach the person over time to control their brain waves. Their website describes such attention training as "a painless and noninvasive technique best described as a learning exercise that trains people to control their attention." One imagines that the kids involved won't care what it is called, as long as they get to play the games.

Further information on the East 3 trainer can be found at www.east3.com/attention_faq.html and at www.attention.com.

Summarised from an article by Michael Menduno, entitled 'Adventures in Mind Control', in Wired magazine (January 2001 issue) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights. Additional information from the East3 website (www.east3.com) .

Recent updates on biofeedback treatment for ADD


Summarised from an article by Karen Wright, entitled 'Winning Brain Waves', in Discover magazine (March 2001), monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

Biofeedback treatment remains on the margin of attention-deficit disorder treatment because of its expense and the length of time it takes. Taking Ritalin, by contrast, takes seconds and is much cheaper; but the new game-playing systems hope to cut costs and provide an easier route to biofeedback treatment. There are some cautionary things that need to be stated, though. Firstly, the portable systems (as proposed by East 3) are not exactly the same as the NASA-related prototype used in the scientific trials. This means that the same results cannot be guaranteed. Olafur Palsson, one of the researchers involved in the original experiments, has recently cautioned that these portable systems should still be used with a doctor's supervision, at least to begin with.

Where such biofeedback treatment might be most effective is when combined with drug and other treatments. The Attention Disorder Deficit Centre in Toronto recommends an approach that focuses on nutrition, sleep patterns, exercise and learning, as well as biofeedback and drug treatments. But it is biofeedback that mosts excites them with its possibilities of providing a long-term, even permanent, solution; as Lyda Thompson, a director of the centre, puts it, "It's so powerful for a child to learn how to self-regulate, to learn what it feels like to concentrate - that's where the real change happens."

The Author - Institute for Social Inventions
Your Comments (8)
Samphill
03 Feb '10 19:29
Subject: UK, Australia Online

Buy Cialis

Our website lists the cheapest Cialis pharmacy offers available online. UK consumers can now Buy Cialis at rock bottom prices!

Generic Cialis

ugg boots sale
27 Jan '10 02:17
Subject: UGG Boots|Classic UGG Boots Sale-Cozy UGG Boots UK Sheepskin Boots
UGG Boots |UGG Boots Your toes never say lies, they love UGG Boots uk -Genuine Sheepskin Boots by UGG Boots Sale Austral
topchi
21 Jan '10 03:51
Subject: Chi flat iron
Michael Jordan Shoes ,Chi flat iron ,chi hair straightener
topchi
21 Jan '10 03:50
Subject: Chi flat iron
cheap jordan shoes and chi hair tool on sale,100% Quality Guarantee!
Samphill
20 Jan '10 19:05
Subject: UK Consumers
Cheap ED trial pack, purchase Cialis from our UK online pharmacy. Generic Cialis for a longer duration of action. buy cialis in 10mg and 20mg tablets.

Cialis UK Online

SEE ALL COMMENTS »
Get Involved With This Idea
SIGN UP TO SUPPORT THIS IDEA »
CONTACT THE AUTHOR »
Rate This Idea
Feasibility Humour
Originality Overall
The Bank Needs Your Brains
Give us your ideas and join the most exciting thing to happen to social invention since two hairy guys rubbed a couple of sticks together!
Related Ideas
1. Naturalizing Schools: a greenhouse in every room 90%
2. Show them a book, show them a way 88%
3. Teach Sign Language in all the world's schools 88%
4. Childless By Choice 87%
5. Football Supporters Community Intervention 87%
Top 5 Ideas From The Bank
1. Naturalizing Schools: a greenhouse in every room 90%
2. The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation 90%
3. Seed Embedded Fertilizer Paper 90%
4. Pollution Equalization: carbon neutral business environments 89%
5. Nutrient Recycling Soil Saving Program 89%
Top 5 Ideas From The Bank
1. 50%
2. 30%
3. Use Elgg or other open-source freeware as add-on to GIB 33%
4. The Human Knowledge MindMap 56%
5. Green Orchard (Walnut) for Poverty Reduction and Environment Protection 69%
Overall Outsiders
1. Zero Separation Cities 1%
2. Waste of time law to punish poor delivery service 1%
3. The Unemploymet Draft 2%
4. Using html to justify text on both ends 4%
5. Standard layout for all websites 4%
 TERMS & CONDITIONS 
Powered by SiteDone Custom Edition 2.2.0