News: Specialized Press
Valenciano Hospital uses Brain Mapping and Cognitive Evoked Potentials to quantify the degree of attention and brain maturation in children with hyperactivity
Source: EUROPA PRESS / Date: Junio de 2009 / Category: Specialized Press
Since October 2008, the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at the University Hospital Doctor Peset of Valencia has done 400 studies of 130 children between the ages of 5 and 14 years referred by the pediatric neurologist of the Department of Pediatrics. The studies used brain mapping and cognitive potentials to quantify the degree of attention and to assess the state of brain maturation in children with Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The studies have included functional neuro-image mapping techniques that allow them to determine the degree of electrical activation of the cerebral cortex through its representation on colored maps With the mapping we can see if the degree of maturation of the child's brain is adequate, since hyperactivity is associated with delays in brain maturation due to a neurobiological dysfunction-specifically in the circuit of the cerebellum-thalamus-striatum-
frontal.
Additionally, cognitive potentials were used for visual and auditory stimuli, which are techniques that record the brain responses to certain stimuli and which allow them to objectively quantify the degree of attention of children with ADHD.
The techniques used are non-invasive and painless, and they are "particularly indicated" in the case of minors, according to the same sources. These are the same techniques that are being used at present for the early diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment in adults which can lead to dementia.
"All of these symptoms occur in varying degrees and in every child the manifestation is different. So any technique helps us to assess whether the response to treatment is appropriate and whether the progress experienced in childhood is essential to good quality of life, not only for the children concerned but also for their families, "explained the Department of Neurophysiology at the University Hospital Doctor Peset.
It is still too early to understand the scope, assess results and draw conclusions. However, this is the path that research is following in this field.