Good vibrations - effects of whole body vibration on attention in healthy individuals and individuals with ADHD.


Author: Fuermaier AB1, Tucha L1, Koerts J1, van Heuvelen MJ2, van der Zee EA3, Lange KW4, Tucha O1.

Affiliation: 1Department of Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. 2Center for Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. 3Center of Behaviour and Neuroscience, Department of Molecular Neurobiology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. 4Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Conference/Journal: PLoS One.
Date published: 2014 Feb 28
Other:
 Volume ID: 9   ,  Issue ID: 2   ,  Pages: e90747   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090747   ,  Word Count: 235  
    

OBJECTIVES:

Most of the current treatment strategies of ADHD are associated with a number of disadvantages which strengthen the need for alternative or additional approaches for the treatment of ADHD. In this respect, Whole Body Vibration (WBV) might be interesting as it was found to have beneficial effects on a variety of physiological measures. The present study explored the effects of WBV on attention of healthy individuals and adults diagnosed with ADHD.

METHODS:

Eighty-three healthy individuals and seventeen adults diagnosed with ADHD participated in the study. WBV treatment was applied passively, while participants were sitting on a chair which was mounted on a vibrating platform. A repeated measure design was employed in order to explore potential effects of WBV treatment on attention within subjects. Attention (i.e. inhibitory control) was measured with a color-word interference paradigm.

RESULTS:

A period of two minutes of WBV treatment had significant beneficial effects of small to medium size on attention of both healthy individuals and adults with ADHD. The effect of WBV treatment on attention did not differ significantly between groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

WBV was demonstrated to improve cognitive performance of healthy individuals as well as of individuals with ADHD. WBV treatment is relatively inexpensive and easy to apply and might therefore be of potential relevance for clinical use. The application of WBV treatment as a cognitive enhancement strategy and as a potential treatment of cognitive impairments is discussed.

PMID: 24587412