[Net-Gold] VIDEO GAMES: Study Tries Training Kids to Pay Attention

[David P. Dillard]

Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 01:33:24 EDT
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Subject: [Net-Gold] VIDEO GAMES: Study Tries Training Kids to Pay
Attention


By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterMon Sep 26, 7:56 PM ET

<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050926/ap_on_he_me/attention_training&
printer=1;_ylt=AqvCDuQpIbHNg4EbnqnuTeNa24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE->

The use of special computer games to train their brains improved healthy
youngsters' ability to pay attention, scientists reported Monday.

It's not clear just how much the games helped, other specialists cautioned.
But with booming interest in developing therapies for attention problems, the
research sheds light on how a normal youngster's brain pays attention in the
first place.

At issue is "executive attention," the ability to tune out distractions and
pay attention only to useful information.

The capacity develops between the ages of 3 and 7, said University of Oregon
psychologist Michael Posner, who has studied cognitive development by
measuring electrical signals from the brains of preschoolers and young children.

There's great individual variation among healthy children and adults, and
problems with this particular attention-paying neural network may be one of many
involved in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Posner and colleagues at Cornell University's Weill Medical College wondered
if it's possible to speed this network's normal development.

They adapted computer exercises used to train monkeys for space travel into
games for 4- and 6-year-olds: For five days, the youngsters progressed from a
game that moved a cat in and out of grass to more complex tasks, such as
choosing the largest number amid deliberate distractions.
The researchers measured the children's brain activity with
electroencephalographs and administered tests of attention and intelligence before and after
the training; some children also underwent genetic testing.

The brains of the 6-year-olds showed significant changes after the computer
training compared with untrained playmates who watched videos, Posner reported
Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They were small improvements compared with the effect that simply getting
older brings, Posner cautioned.
The 4-year-olds showed little change.

There was a genetic effect: Children who were less outgoing and more
controlled were better able to concentrate for their age and thus showed less effect
from the training.

The study "significantly advances our understanding ... because it
demonstrates that executive attention skills can be trained, or development
accelerated, in young children," neuroscientists Karla Holmbie and Mark Johnson of the
University of London's Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development wrote in an
accompanying review.

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.

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On the Net:
Learning Sciences and Brain Research:
<http://www.teach-the-brain.org/learn/attention/>