In the garden, butterflies flutter all around and in all directions. The task is to catch them with a virtual net, but only the blue ones. The red ones are a distraction. Sometimes they end up in the net by accident.
The task seems simple, but this experiment in a virtual reality (VR) headset that tracks a person’s eyes, head and hands can explain a lot about how distraction works. The tracking showed that some people caught those distracting red butterflies by accident more often. For people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these simple mistakes caused by distractions can add up across their lives.
“We use attention seamlessly hundreds of times a day to gather sensory information and complete tasks,” said Joy Geng, a professor of psychology in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. “We often don't think about it until things don't work well.”
The experiment with the virtual garden in her lab at the Center for Mind and Brain was Geng’s first attempt at using VR. Since then, her work with VR has expanded. In collaboration with a colleague at the UC Davis School of Medicine, they are using VR to build a deeper understanding of ADHD. Their hope is that this work will lead to better diagnoses and treatments of attention disorders in children and adults.
Focus and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
People with ADHD have such a hard time keeping focus that it affects their daily lives. The condition involves a high level of distractibility, and in some, hyperactivity and impulsivity. ADHD affects an estimated 7 million children between 3-17 years old in the U.S., about 11% of all children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Julie Schweitzer is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UC Davis School of Medicine and at the MIND Institute. Her team treats children and adults with ADHD. Her patients often struggle in school because they might have trouble keeping track of what their teachers say, or they might even do their homework and completely forget to turn it in.
“Their parent tells them, 'Go get ready for school, go in and brush your teeth,' and they get distracted by something and they never make it to the bathroom,” said Schweitzer.
These kinds of lapses may seem minor, but when they happen over and over their consequences can cascade across a person’s life. Schweitzer said that children who do poorly in school because they can’t focus grow into adults who have a harder time keeping a job, who earn less money and who have car accidents more often. People with ADHD also have higher rates of suicide.
It just cascades and gets worse and worse. If you're doing poorly in the academic setting that has a lot of implications for what's happening for these individuals later in life.” — Schweitzer
While ADHD has long been the most common childhood behavioral disorder, pediatricians, psychiatrists and psychologists diagnose and treat it with prescribed medication based on subjective rating scales. Parents and teachers rate how attentive a child is, how good they are at following instructions and how often they lose things.
Schweitzer said she has seen surveys vary widely, even from the same parent. A parent might rate their child one way in the waiting room and another way entirely in the consultation office just down the hall.
“Pediatricians are doing the best they can, but the tools we have for diagnosis and treatment are very subjective,” said Schweitzer.
Read the rest of the story from the College of Letters and Science here.