Our team develops computer-based games to help children and adults with conditions like ADHD. We do this in collaboration with young people with ADHD, their parents, and their teachers.
People with ADHD often find it physically difficult to “keep their eyes on the task” – they are easily distracted by other things. However, exercising any skill physically “rewires” and strengthens the brain connections involved. The more you practice, the more fluent and natural those once-challenging and effortful activities become.
RECOGNeyes is an eyetracker-controlled computer game that exercises your control over where you are looking. Activities including keeping your eyes on one just one thing while the game tries to distract you, focussing on something without looking directly at it, or remembering where something last appeared so that you can be on the lookout for it next time.
Eyetrackers also measure the size of your pupils. Changes in pupil size provide additional information about how attentive you are. We are developing ways of “feeding back” this information as part of the game’s soundtrack, helping players not only to learn how to “keep their eyes on the task” but to also become more aware of when their attention is starting to wander.
Clinical translation/application of neurotechnology
García-Baos, A., D’Amelio, T., Oliveira, I., Collins, P., Echevarria, C., Zapata, L. P., Liddle, E., & Supèr, H. (2019). Novel Interactive Eye-Tracking Game for Training Attention in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, 21(4), 19m02428. https://doi.org/10.4088/PCC.19m02428
Waitt, A. E., Kumar, J., Gascoyne, L., Waters-Harvey, B., Shalabi, A., Habgood, J., Collins, P., Groom, M., Liddle, P. F., & Liddle, E. (2024). Gaze-control training in a sample of inattentive young adults: A Confidence-in-Concept study of neural mechanisms (p. 2024.11.17.24316746). medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.17.24316746
The University of NottinghamUniversity Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD