ℹ️ This article features the contribution and endorsement of Gema Climent (founder of Nesplora) and Miguel Saura Carrasco (from Nesplora’s Psychology and R&D Department), and is centred around the use of Nesplora Attention Kids Aula as a neuropsychological assessment tool for attention.
Abstract
Background
Although many studies have analyzed the effectiveness of novel Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs) in diagnosing ADHD, very few studies have examined how cultural factors influence that effectiveness.
Aims
The present study aimed to analyze performance in a Virtual-Reality CPT in a sample of children resident in Spain and Argentina.
Methods and procedures
138 students participated in this study. They were aged between 6 and 16 years old, with a mean age of 10.38 (SD = 2.46) and had been diagnosed with ADHD.
Outcomes and results
Commissions was the only significant variable in both discriminant models. In the Spanish population, the commissions variable was shown to correctly classify 49.4 % of the three types of ADHD presentation. However, in the Argentine population, the commissions variable correctly classified 68.3 %.
Conclusions and implications
These results may have been biased by the severity of the different types of presentation. In fact, it seems reasonable to think that the greater the severity, the better Aula Nesplora would predict the three types of presentation of ADHD. These results emphasize the need to consider other variables with a notable impact on daily life as children develop.
Highlights
- The Argentine sample presented more acute ADHD symptoms than the Spanish sample.
- Commission error was the only significant variable in the prediction of ADHD.
- Commission error has a greater predictive power in the Argentine population.
- Cultural aspects are essential in the evaluation protocol of the ADHD.
What this paper adds?
The present study addresses a notable research gap in protocols for evaluating and diagnosing ADHD by examining whether a Virtual Reality Test can predict the three types of ADHD presentation considering the country of origin (Argentina and Spain). More specifically, the findings show that although both populations had been diagnosed with the same disorder, the symptoms in the Argentine population were more severe. These results might be explained by the symptomatological complexity of ADHD and participants’ subclinical problems. The results also show that, regardless of country and potential cultural influence on performance, the number of commission errors was the only variable that was able to significantly predict the type of ADHD presentation. Nonetheless, the predictive capacity of the commission variable was significantly greater in the Argentine population, where the amount of predictions was 18.9 percentage points greater than in the Spanish group. This result may have been biased by the severity of the different types of presentation. The study concludes the importance of thorough ADHD evaluation protocols that should be not solely based on performance in attentional tasks and/or observational scales but which also need to be tested and considered in relation to other variables with notable impact on daily life, such as the cultural or educational aspects that are so present in children’s development.
