Hi everyone ...

I just wanted to inform you all of a new research project being conducted at The University of Sydney, Australia.

"Exploring the use of biofeedback video games to help children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (http://www2.fhs.usyd.edu/arow/biofeedback4adhd/)".

Although participants are recruited locally in Australia, because of geographical limitations, I think it's an important study that would interest the global ADHD community.

So, if you're an Australian resident and are able and willing to participate contact the research team members as we would be interested to hear from you. And, if you're a global interest, sharing the knowledge of the issue and study is always welcomed!

:)

Hi Inquisitive,

I love video games! And also act like a child quite a lot of the time! Do I count?

(my physical age is 31)

hehehe Hi Animal! unfortunately, we are targeting children, physical age between 5-13 years :(

i've had a few interested people (above the age group we are after) enquire about participating, but at this stage we are looking at ADHD children.

who knows, maybe later down the track, depending how this study goes, we might extend the age group!

thanks for your interest Animal! :)

Inquisitive, Animal may now call you the Inquistor! He is a child at heart! His chronological age inverted is 13! What some people will do to play video games! But Animal, you would have to go to the TESTING ROOM. They probably wouldn't let you lie on the floor and roll around and consume sangers while playing!

RADD

ROFL :D

lets not call it the "testing room" ... "experimental room" perhaps? no, equally as frightening! lets just say its one of the University rooms where we will be observing the children's behaviour towards the video games.

and no, rolling around on the floor is not encouraged! the "video games" we'll be testing, we're hoping will prevent things like wanting to roll around on the floor! its not the type of video games that stimulate excitement in a way that most games do, were hoping that this 'video game' will help teach children relaxation techniques and learn to obtain a 'reward' by being calm.

im 13 (mental age, physically 25)....... and live very close to the University of Sydney......

Will the kids be locked up in cages when they are not being tested??? :D (kidding!)

what kind of research did you undertake as a child rewy?! no, no cages in our study!

nice (?) to see that you're comfortable in admitting you have mental ages of 13 ! :D

since you reside near the University know of anyone that may be interested in partaking in the study? help in my research promotion and recruitment is much appreciated :)

one of my friends kids have ODD, however she lives no where near sydney...

I dont know of any kids with a physical age of 5-13 that have ADD or ADHD

soz

:D it's all good ...

i suppose the request for help is directed and open to everyone.

i'm looking forward to getting this underway so that i can review the results and tell everyone about it since there isnt much on biofeedback video games that dont involve attaching wires and stuff to the children's heads.

Friday 27th October 2006 : The ADHD and Biofeedback Research Website (http://www.adhdresearch.info) is currently down. I apologise for any inconvenience, unfortunately it is out of my hands. I will post again when the site is back up.

Thank you for your patience, and hope that you visit the site for updates to the study.

:)

Monday 30th October 2006 : The ADHD and Biofeedback Research Website (http://www.adhdresearch.info/) is back up and running.

Thank you for your patience.

:)

I just took a look at this website. The researchers are using a commercial software program called The Wild Divine (http://www.wilddivine.com/) which is designed to help you reach meditative states through biofeedback. I was fascinated when I first heard about this, around 3 or so years ago, as I've tried many times to learn how to meditate and the only thing I achieved was to bore myself out of my mind.

I bought the program, which isn't cheap -- I paid $150 for it 3 years ago. It consists of three caps that fit over your fingers, connected to what they call a lightstone, which is turn is connected to your computer. These 3 caps measure heart rate variability and skin conductance level.

The graphics in the software are gorgeous. Various figures appear to talk to you, explaining things as you walk through beautiful palacial grounds, like you'd imagine in an Arabian Nights story or Indian palace. Periodically, you come to an object that will move...float, bounce, turn...as the sensor readings indicate that you're relaxing.

When I first tried using The Wild Divine, I wound up feeling only frustration, because I was TRYING to make things happen. It wasn't until I happened to take my eyes off the screen and turned my attention away to look at something else that my ball began to float. At that point, I realized that I needed to stop trying to make things happen.

This program should be used on a regular basis to make progress in learning to relax. I gave up. But now that I am diagnosed and on medication, I'm eager to try again and see if I can finally make progress.

Nightwing is spot on with his description of The Wild Divine software we are using. Thank you so much for describing your experience with the game, we are using the game with children 5-15 years, but it is good to hear feedback from someone that can express their experiences with what they felt was difficult/easy and why they found it to be difficult/easy etc.

We now have preliminary results available on our website from the first group of 12 participants who have completed the study. We are currently in the middle of trials for our second group of participants (another 8 AD/HD children, and 10 children without AD/HD) to add to our AD/HD cohort, and create a control group to compare results to.

Please see our website (http://www.adhdresearch.info/) for the findings.

Observing the hyper-focused mind at work are we?

Good pattern!

(and you thought games were bad)

Watch an interview with Dr. Andrew Campbell, and myself talking about our Biofeedback and AD/HD Research Project on the television program Good Game, onthe ABC (in Australia). There will also be footage on what happens during the Biofeedback sessions conducted with the children.

The interview will air on the following dates;

Tuesday 23rd October 2007
8:30pm
ABC 2 (note this is not the ABC main channel)

The interview will be repeated on Thursday 25th October 2007
10:30pm
ABC 2

And again on Friday 26th October 2007
12:20am (i.e. early Saturday morning)
ABC (main channel).

For those of you who miss it, or are not in Australia to watch it, the episode will also be available to watch on the program's website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/ from next week.

:)

Thanks for the alert! I'm very curious to hear about your findings. I'm in the US, so I 'll be watching later on.

Nightwing

Thanks Inquisitive! I will watch this soon. Glad to see a post like this.

VI

The direct link to the interview is http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s2067977.htm just click on play video (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/video/pre2008.htm?program=goodgame&pres=20071023_2030&story=5).

The episode is Serious Games, and our particular segment for the study is roughly 4 minutes into the show.

We also have another interview coming up with a news program in the upcoming month, which will look more at the results of our study. Stay tuned!