[ effect of neurofeedback training and neurofeedback with occupational therapy based on cognitive rehabilitation on executive functions in autistic children]

Many key problems in autistic children are related to executive dysfunction. This dysfunction is usually occurred due to structural and functional dissociation between brain regions. So neurofeedback can be used as a new treatment procedure in improving children's executive function through modifying brain waves but behavioral changes are usually reflection of long-term changes in the brain level. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effect of neurofeedback training and behavioral effects caused by adding occupational therapy based on cognitive rehabilitation. Single system [A-B-A-B+C-A] design was used in this study. Participants were 2 children with autism spectrum disorder who completed 41 sessions during the study. They received neurofeedback intervention alone [B] during 20 sessions and in the following 12 sessions neurofeedback with occupational therapy [B+C]. In this study, Wisconsin card sorting and tower of london tests were used for collecting information on children,s executive functions. According to the obtained results, the effect size of neurofeedback training on executive function was high for both participants. The rate of shifting attention was improved as one of the executive function items after adding occupational therapy and also the increasing effect of neurofeedback in planning was maintained. The results of this study showed that neurofeedback can improve executive function in autistic children and the effect of neurofeedback can be more obvious if occupational therapy will be added. But gaining more significant behavioral changes after receiving occupational therapy needs more sessions

Unilateral neglect in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder

Visuo-spatial attention is an ability by which a portion of visuo-spatial space is selected for efficient processing of the information orienting from it. people show a normal bias in visuo-spatial attention. The direction of this bias in Attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] is different from normal people's bias. Some cases diagnosed with ADHD can show a significant inattention in one side of the space, which is called unilateral neglect. The aim of this study is to investigate on how the visou-spatial bias is in children with ADHD. In this cross-sectional study, fifteen children [7-10 years] were classified with ADHD-combined type [ADHD-C] and 15 children were matched for age, gender and IQ. Samples had been chosen through simple random sampling and they did Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children [WISC-IV] and also the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory for assessing whether they had inclusion criteria or not. For participants, visuo-spatial attention was assessed using the Star Cancellation Test. The results suggest that, there is a significant difference between ADHD-C groups performance and control group's performance in the Star Cancellation Test [p<0.05]. Unilateral neglect recognized in ADHD-C group and it was in the left half of the space. There is a significant difference in visuo-spatial attention between ADHD group and control group. Moreover, unilateral neglect which has seen in some ADHD-C cases should consider as an important item in this disorder. Further research in this area is needed