Brain stimulation may help children with ADHD wait for the biggest rewards

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   Twenty children with ADHD took part, aged 6 to 12 and about 9 on average. Sixteen were boys and four were girls, and all had been diagnosed by a child psychiatrist.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each child had three sessions, a week apart and in a random order. Each session used a weak current for 15 minutes, with one of two electrode placements or a fake session. About five minutes in, the children did a balloon task and a chocolate task, one offering more chocolate later.

3. 03

   What happened

   One placement made children more willing to wait for the biggest rewards than the fake session did. Smaller rewards showed no clear difference, and the other balloon measures did not change. The paper calls its balloon result less risk taking, but its own numbers point the other way.

What the study found

1. Mixed

   Brain stimulation made children more willing to wait for the biggest rewards, but not for smaller ones.

   Very small randomised trial of 20 children with ADHD aged 6 to 12 · vs a fake session, or the placements swapped · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ numbers unreliable; summary claims more than the results show

2. Mixed

   On the balloon task, one placement changed how many balloons did not burst; other measures stayed the same.

   Very small randomised trial of 20 children with ADHD aged 6 to 12 · vs a fake session · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ numbers unreliable; summary claims more than the results show

Source