Characterizing cognitive control abilities in children with 16p11.2 deletion using adaptive ‘video game’ technology: a pilot study

Assessing cognitive abilities in children is challenging for two primary reasons: lack of testing engagement can lead to low testing sensitivity and inherent performance variability. Here we sought to explore whether an engaging, adaptive digital cognitive platform built to look and feel like a vide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Translational psychiatry 2016-09, Vol.6 (9), p.e893-e893
Main Authors: Anguera, J A, Brandes-Aitken, A N, Rolle, C E, Skinner, S N, Desai, S S, Bower, J D, Martucci, W E, Chung, W K, Sherr, E H, Marco, E J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/1595
692/53/2421
Adolescent
Attention
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - genetics
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology
Autism Spectrum Disorder - genetics
Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology
Autistic Disorder - psychology
Behavioral Sciences
Biological Psychology
Case-Control Studies
Child
Chromosome Deletion
Chromosome Disorders - psychology
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16
Cognition
Female
Humans
Intellectual Disability - genetics
Intellectual Disability - psychology
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neurosciences
Original
original-article
Pharmacotherapy
Pilot Projects
Psychiatry
Siblings
Video Games
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Summary:Assessing cognitive abilities in children is challenging for two primary reasons: lack of testing engagement can lead to low testing sensitivity and inherent performance variability. Here we sought to explore whether an engaging, adaptive digital cognitive platform built to look and feel like a video game would reliably measure attention-based abilities in children with and without neurodevelopmental disabilities related to a known genetic condition, 16p11.2 deletion. We assessed 20 children with 16p11.2 deletion, a genetic variation implicated in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism, as well as 16 siblings without the deletion and 75 neurotypical age-matched children. Deletion carriers showed significantly slower response times and greater response variability when compared with all non-carriers; by comparison, traditional non-adaptive selective attention assessments were unable to discriminate group differences. This phenotypic characterization highlights the potential power of administering tools that integrate adaptive psychophysical mechanics into video-game-style mechanics to achieve robust, reliable measurements.
ISSN:2158-3188
2158-3188
DOI:10.1038/tp.2016.178