Myadhd, EEG Expert, Conners, TOVA, IVA, QIKtest by Siegfried Othmer (originally posted on the AAPB listserver)
I am not acquainted with myadhd.com, but I take this opportunity to recommend the Continuous Performance Test as the most informative test with respect to the ADHD spectrum. More specifically, I recommend the QIKtest (www.eegexpert.com). The QIKtest is based on the TOVA design, which differs from the Conners test mainly by using a consistent inter-stimulus interval throughout (for maximum boredom!). The TOVA norms are now dated, but the bigger issue is that they are based on a Gaussian model. We have demonstrated that omission errors and commission errors are power-law distributed. This calls for non-parametric statistics, i.e. population-based norms. In consequence, QIKtest norms are based on a sample population of over 50,000, some 40x what TOVA relied upon (>500 per age and gender bin). Further, we have demonstrated that the reaction time distribution is not homogeneous. Reaction time outliers must be treated as a distinct entity, as yet another discrete error. Additionally, the threshold for anticipatory errors is clearly age-dependent, which the QIKtest has taken into account.
On the more conceptual level, during the course of four decades of clinical engagement with the ADHD spectrum, during most of which we have been informed by CPT data (the first 23 years with TOVA norms!), the centrality of cerebral instability as a core issue in ADHD has firmly settled in. The discrete errors in the CPT reveal to us the subtle discontinuities in mental state that may well largely account for key deficits in classic ADHD.
I have marveled at the creativity behind the Conners and the IVA to weave a comprehensive narrative around such a parsimonious data set, but these narratives support the thesis that it is these data that offer us such broad and inclusive explanatory power. They index for us the critical failure mode in ADHD—brief, episodic discontinuities in mental state.
We use the QIKtest universally with our clients because it offers us the most sensitive measure of our universal susceptibility to discontinuity in our mental states—the core issue of cerebral instability. Resolution is achieved most efficiently by way of our instability protocol—inter-hemispheric training at homotopic sites, at the individual’s optimal response frequency if necessary.
On the more conceptual level, during the course of four decades of clinical engagement with the ADHD spectrum, during most of which we have been informed by CPT data (the first 23 years with TOVA norms!), the centrality of cerebral instability as a core issue in ADHD has firmly settled in. The discrete errors in the CPT reveal to us the subtle discontinuities in mental state that may well largely account for key deficits in classic ADHD.
I have marveled at the creativity behind the Conners and the IVA to weave a comprehensive narrative around such a parsimonious data set, but these narratives support the thesis that it is these data that offer us such broad and inclusive explanatory power. They index for us the critical failure mode in ADHD—brief, episodic discontinuities in mental state.
We use the QIKtest universally with our clients because it offers us the most sensitive measure of our universal susceptibility to discontinuity in our mental states—the core issue of cerebral instability. Resolution is achieved most efficiently by way of our instability protocol—inter-hemispheric training at homotopic sites, at the individual’s optimal response frequency if necessary.
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