Effect of Distractors on Sustained Attention and Hyperactivity in Youth With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Using a Mobile Virtual Reality School Program

Abstract

Objective: This study examined whether distractors in virtual reality (VR) environment affected the attention and hyperactivity in children and adolescents with ADHD.

Method: A total of 40 students (21 ADHD, 19 controls) aged between 9 and 17 years participated in this study. A rapid visual information processing task utilizing VR (VR-RVP) was performed under two conditions (no-distractor and distractor condition). Task performance and head movement during each condition were compared, and additional analyses were conducted after grouping participants into two developmental stages.

Results: Children with ADHD performed comparably to the controls under the distractor condition, but had poorer performance under the no-distractor condition. They displayed more head movement under the distractor condition than in the no-distractor condition.

Conclusion: VR is possibly a useful tool for investigating the effect of distractors on individuals with ADHD, and children with ADHD are more vulnerable to a low-level stimulation situation than normal children in VR.