A Brain-Computer Interface and Augmented Reality Neurofeedback to Treat ADHD: A Virtual Telekinesis Approach

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD poses a severe concern for today's youth, especially when the costs, efficacy, side effects of medication and the lack of immediate risk discourage treatment. ADHD causes people to make impulsive decisions, making it harder to succeed in school, work, and other aspects of life. Neurofeedback Therapy has shown promising results as an alternative in treating mental disorders and improving cognition. It leverages the inherent mechanism of operant conditioning by presenting real-time feedback of the user's brainwave activity, which is usually acquired via an EEG. However, long sessions of monotonous feedback have proven tedious, and users lose motivation to continue. Engaging graphical interfaces and games have been developed to combat this issue and have been proven to improve the treatment's efficacy. In this work, we extend upon these methods to increase engagement by employing Augmented Reality in the context of a virtual telekinetic game. The system comprises three modules: an Emotiv headset for EEG acquisition, MATLAB for signal processing, and an AR mobile application to deliver the feedback. The hardware and software implementation, the signal processing methodology, and the Neurofeedback protocol are thoroughly outlined. Our next step is to conduct a pilot study with a subset of healthy children to evaluate the complexity of the process.