Development of Reading Abilities in Children with ADHD Following fNIRS-Neurofeedback or EMG-Biofeedback

Abstract. Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show deficient reading skills, which, like ADHD symptoms, are associated with limitations in neurocognitive abilities. Neurofeedback (NF) aims to improve the latter, to alleviate ADHD symptoms, and to promote school and reading performances. Whether frontal lobe-NF based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electromyogram (EMG)-biofeedback (BF), however, improve reading abilities of children with ADHD and whether these changes are associated with changes in neurocognitive abilities, has not yet been clarified. It was also unclear whether embedding trainings in virtual reality (VR) could increase their effectiveness. These questions were examined using data of 35 children with ADHD (6–11 years) who participated in 15 sessions of fNIRS-NF in VR, fNIRS-NF in 2D, or EMG-BF in VR. On average, children's reading performance improved in all training groups. Stronger improvements were found after VR trainings. Improvements in reading natural words were, on a trend level, accompanied by decreasing attention, while improvements in reading pseudowords were accompanied by improved sustained attention and response inhibition. The results suggest that fNIRS-NF and EMG-BF effectively improve reading abilities of children with ADHD, especially when training in VR.