Involuntary Eye Movement Indication of ADHD

Involuntary eye movements can be an indicator of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, new research from Tel Aviv University shows.

The research team led by Moshe Fried examined the involuntary eye movement of 44 adults taking an ADHD diagnostic computer test, the Test of Variables of Attention. They were divided into two teams, the ADHD group and the non-ADHD group, with 22 participants in each team. Researchers used an eye-tracking system to monitor the movement.

This 22-minute exercise was repeated twice by each participant. Those in the ADHD group first took the test without medications, and then took it once more following a dose of methylphenidate. The second group acted as the control group.

"We had two objectives going into this research," said Fried, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult himself. "The first was to provide a new diagnostic tool for ADHD, and the second was to test whether ADHD medication really works - and we found that it does. There was a significant difference between the two groups, and between the two sets of tests taken by ADHD participants un-medicated and later medicated."

The study findings showed a direct connection between ADHD and involuntary eye movement. Researchers also found that after taking methylphenidate, the ADHD group reported enhanced performance that normalized the suppression of involuntary eye movements to the average level of the control group.

"This test is affordable and accessible, rendering it a practical and foolproof tool for medical professionals," Fried stated. "With other tests, you can slip up, make 'mistakes' - intentionally or not. But our test cannot be fooled. Eye movements tracked in this test are involuntary, so they constitute a sound physiological marker of ADHD. "Our study also reflected that methylphenidate does work. It is certainly not a placebo, as some have suggested."

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