A Videogame as a Tool for Clinical Screening of Possible Vulnerability to Impulsivity and Attention Disturbances in Children

Abstract

An attention disturbance is a problem that affects many school-aged children. The assessment in children is usually report-based, and as a result, controversy surrounds the diagnosis. To solve this issue, the aim of this study was to develop a new tool to detect possible attention-related problems and impulsive behavior in 4- and 5-year-old children. This tool was developed as an Android app and could be used to provide an early indicator of possible future development problems. A sample of 103 children (48 girls and 55 boys) was randomly selected from primary schools and assessed by Pinky-Piggy, a videogame application based on a classical paradigm in experimental psychology. Data from this app were compared with a Child Neuropsychological Maturity Questionnaire. The subjects displayed different patterns of response to play a very simple game called Pinky-Piggy. The application discriminated between high-responders and low responders. The results showed a relationship between these two profiles and the levels of attention and neurodevelopment in each group. The tool could identify different types of profiles and demonstrated its potential to evaluate endophenotypes to predict attentional problems related to impulsive behavior. Additionally, it required less time and fewer tests to identify possible at-risk populations, thus assisting in clinical diagnosis.

Sign-Tracking and Goal-Tracking in Humans: Utilising Eye-Tracking in Clinical and Non-Clinical Populations

“…They found that sign-tracking was associated with attentional and inhibitory control deficits and that ST overly relied on subcortical cue-reactive brain systems. Despite not investigating ST/GT per se, Serrano-Barroso et al [37] used an gamified autoshaping task in a sample of 103 young children, and found a relationship between high and low respondents on the task and level of attention, indicating that the tool might help evaluate endophenotypes and link them to attentional problems.…”