Sensory white noise in clinical ADHD: Who benefits from noise, and who performs worse?

Summary & key facts

Researchers tested whether random sound ('white noise') or random visual 'pixel noise' helps children with ADHD do a visual memory task. About 40 children with a confirmed ADHD diagnosis, average age about 14, tried the task in quiet, with sound noise, and with visual noise. Overall, noise did not improve performance for the whole group. But children who had more problems with paying attention tended to do better with noise, while children with more hyperactive or impulsive traits tended to do worse. Sound and visual noise affected the same children in similar ways. The study was small, used one lab test, and does not show long-term effects, so it only suggests that noise might help some kid

Key facts:

• The study tested auditory white noise and visual white pixel noise during a visual working memory task in about 40 children diagnosed with ADHD.
• Participants were on average about 14 years old and completed the test in three conditions: quiet, sound noise, and visual noise.
• When looking at all children together, adding noise did not significantly change performance.
• Children with relatively stronger inattentive symptoms tended to perform better when exposed to noise.
• Children with relatively stronger hyperactive or impulsive symptoms tended to perform worse when exposed to noise.
• A child’s response to auditory noise and to visual noise were strongly linked: if a child benefited from one type, they were likely to benefit from the other.
• The study used a single lab task and a modest number of participants, and some children paused their ADHD medication before testing, so the results are preliminary.
• Visual white noise had not been tested before in a clinical ADHD sample; this study included that comparison alongside auditory noise.

Abstract

It is important to consider individual differences in response to noise exposure, and to take into account the specific ADHD symptom profile (inattentive vs. hyperactive/impulsive) in applying noise to support cognitive performance in children with ADHD.

Topics

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Infant Development and Preterm Care Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Categories

Health Sciences Medicine Psychiatry and Mental health

Tags

Affect (linguistics) Artificial intelligence Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Audiology Clinical psychology Cognition Cognitive psychology Communication Computer science Developmental psychology Image (mathematics) Medicine Noise (video) Psychiatry Psychology Sensory system Stimulus modality Telecommunications White noise Working memory

Conditions & symptoms

ADHD Difficulty focusing