An attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) video game 'test' that uses a wearable, non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) to rapidly measure neural activity while the user plays is helping doctors make more accurate diagnoses. This new idea has great potential to eliminate the gray area around the diagnosis of ADHD, even if it is still in the research stage.

Currently, mental and behavioral evaluations are the main methods of diagnosis until further research on genetic biomarkers for ADHD is conducted. According to the Mayo Clinic, three distinct forms of ADHD are identified based on symptoms: mostly inattentive, primarily hyperactive/impulsive, and combined or mixed—where a person falls on the wide and diverse continuum between these two.

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Even though EEG can now be used to measure brain activity for ADHD diagnoses, it ignores this resting/task state and fails to recognize the subtleties of the condition's subtypes, which are, predictably, complicated and highly diverse when it comes to mixed type ADHD.

Researchers from Taiwan’s National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCY) developed a wireless BCI device that fits comfortably on a patient's head to record both resting-state and 'task-state' electroencephalography (EEG) signals.

This BCI works in conjunction with a game or video designed to stimulate a visual and auditory response in the patient, and information from the brain is transmitted from each dry EEG electrode in different channels to specially designed AI-assisted software, reports Bronwyn Thompson in New Atlas.

"It's convenient and time-saving – it only takes 10 minutes to put on this device," explained researcher Jo-Wei Lin at Taiwan's Innotech Expo on October 18. "For children, traditional ADHD diagnosis needs many interviews with teachers and parents, and questionnaires to decide whether the child has ADHD or not.

The device serves as an extra tool to precisely diagnose and treat ADHD, but it is not intended to take the role of medical professionals. Although children have been the focus of the research, the team claims that adults can adapt to the way brainwave processing functions.

Compared to questionnaires and interviews, the game-based test feels more approachable to children and is a new addition to the evaluation of ADHD. Additionally, in collaboration with Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Hsinchu Ton Yen General Hospital, the team's equipment has a 95% accuracy rate.

“We let the children wear the testing device to play the ‘game-based attention test’ by the research team," said team lead Li-Wei Ko, professor of the Institute of Electrical and Control Engineering at NYCU, in September. "At the same time, we analyze their brainwave changes to determine whether they tend to hyperactivity, which can shorten the traditional diagnostic process that takes three months to one month."

Early research into the technology was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.