Identification of patterns in children with ADHD based on brain waves

Abstract

There are several disorders that affect the level of attention of people both in their childhood and adulthood. One of the most recognized disorders is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is usually diagnosed for the first time in childhood, and the symptoms persist in adolescence and adulthood. Some ways of knowing if a person presents ADHD are: through questionnaires, intellectual tests, types of behavior, medical diagnoses, among others. These tests require a long period of time where an observation and analysis process is performed in order to obtain a reliable diagnosis. This paper presents the development of an experiment for the identification of ADHD, using an electronic system where brain waves are involved as a physiological variable. The comparative analysis is described on a sample of children with diagnosed ADHD, and a sample of children without ADHD. This analysis is performed using statistical tools that graphically demonstrate some differences in the behavior of the level of attention of a child with ADHD with respect to the behavior of the level of attention of a child without ADHD. Finally, the obtained characteristics from a child with ADHD are described and a strategy is proposed for identify reliable patterns based on the user’s level of attention.