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Published on: November 14, 2018
Capturing attention improves accommodation: An experimental study in children with ADHD using multiple object
Rubén Molina1, Beatriz Redondo1, Antonio Molina-Carballo2
1CLARO (Clinical and Laboratory Applications of Research in Optometry) Research Group, Department of Optics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Spain.
Insights
Attention significantly impacts eye focusing in children. Increased attentional demand reduced accommodative lag in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), suggesting attention
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with visual processing differences.
- The relationship between attentional load and visual functions like accommodation requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how manipulating attentional load affects accommodative response dynamics in children with ADHD.
- To explore the influence of ADHD medication on these visual dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a multiple object tracking (MOT) task to vary attentional load in children with and without ADHD.
- Monitored accommodative and pupil dynamics using an open-field autorefractometer (WAM-5500).
- Compared accommodative lag and variability between medicated, non-medicated ADHD groups, and controls.
Main Results:
- Increased attentional load reduced accommodative lag in both ADHD and control groups.
- Pupil size increased with task complexity, validating the attentional manipulation.
- Non-medicated children with ADHD showed greater accommodative variability than controls.
Conclusions:
- Attentional allocation critically influences accommodative response dynamics.
- Findings suggest potential relevance for diagnosing and treating accommodative deficits in children, with or without ADHD.
- ADHD medication status may influence accommodative stability.
Abstract:
The present study was aimed at assessing the impact of manipulating the attentional load using a multiple object tracking (MOT) task on the dynamics of the accommodative response in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The pupil size was recorded to assess the effectiveness of the experimental manipulation, and the role of ADHD medication was also explored. The accommodative and pupil dynamics (magnitude and variability) were monitored with an open-field autorefractometer (WAM-5500) in 41 children with ADHD (24 non-medicated and 17 medicated) and 21 non-ADHD controls, while they performed the MOT task with four different levels of complexity (i.e., tracking zero, one, two, or three targets). We found that increasing the attentional load caused a heightened accommodative response, showing a negative association between MOT complexity and accommodative lag in children with ADHD and non-ADHD controls. Complementarily, the pupil size increased as a function of task complexity, confirming a successful experimental manipulation. The stability of accommodation was insensitive to the attentional manipulation, but it differed between groups. Specifically, non-medicated children with ADHD exhibited a greater variability of accommodation in comparison to controls. Increasing the attentional load is associated with a reduction in the accommodative lag in children with ADHD and controls. Our findings show that the allocation of attention plays an important role in the dynamics of the accommodative response, which may be of relevance in the diagnosis and treatment of accommodative deficits in children with and without ADHD.
