ArticleBehavioral and brain functions : BBF2016
Neuropsychological and neurophysiological benefits from white noise in children with and without ADHD.
Article in Behavioral and brain functions : BBF, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Do White Noise or Pink Noise Help With Task Performance in Youth With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or With Elevated Attention Problems?Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of White Noise on Academic Skills in Children with ADHD and Specific Learning Disorders: New Perspectives for Personalised Rehabilitation and Educational Intervention.Pediatric reports · 2026Article
- The Influence of Noise Perception and Parent-Rated Developmental Characteristics on White Noise Benefits in Children.Journal of eye movement research · 2026Article
- An Evidence-Based and Lived Experience Approach to Improving Therapeutic Environments for Neurodivergent Clients.Health services insights · 2026Review
- A Comprehensive Evidence-Based Review of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions for Neonatal Pain.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
- The Evolving ADHD Phenotype in the Externalizing Context.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Dynamic Interaction between Procedural Learning and Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Self-Limited Focal Epilepsies.Brain topography · 2025Article
- When Silence Breaks: The Influence of Pure Tones and White Noises on Conditioned Flight Responses.Brain and behavior · 2025Review
- Distinct neural mechanisms of alpha binaural beats and white noise for cognitive enhancement in young adults.AIMS neuroscience · 2025Article
- No Effects of Auditory and Visual White Noise on Oculomotor Control in Children with ADHD.Journal of attention disorders · 2024Article
- A New Objective Diagnostic Tool for Attention-Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder (ADHD): Development of the Distractor-Embedded Auditory Continuous Performance Test.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Effects of Auditory and Visual White Noise on Oculomotor Inhibition in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Protocol for a Crossover Study.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Protocol and preregistration for the CODEC project: measuring, modelling and mechanistically understanding the nature of cognitive variability in early childhood.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Sensory white noise in clinical ADHD: Who benefits from noise, and who performs worse?Scandinavian journal of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology · 2024Article
- Effects of stochastic vestibular stimulation on cognitive performance in children with ADHD.Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- How the Spreading and Intensity of Interictal Epileptic Activity Are Associated with Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children with Self-Limited Focal Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Eye-movement indices of arousal predict ADHD and comorbid externalizing symptoms over a 2-year period.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- White Noise and Its Potential Applications in Occupational Health: A Review.Iranian journal of public health · 2023Review
- A novel intervention for treating adults with ADHD using peripheral visual stimulation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Random noise stimulation in the treatment of patients with neurological disorders.Neural regeneration research · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOptimal stimulation theory and moderate brain arousal (MBA) model hypothesize that extra-task stimulation (e.g. white noise) could improve cognitive functions of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We investigate benefits of white noise on attention and inhibition in children with and without ADHD (7-12 years old), both at behavioral and at neurophysiological levels.
methodsThirty children with and without ADHD performed a visual cued Go/Nogo task in two conditions (white noise or no-noise exposure), in which behavioral and P300 (mean amplitudes) data were analyzed. Spontaneous eye-blink rates were also recorded and participants went through neuropsychological assessment. Two separate analyses were conducted with each child separately assigned into two groups (1) ADHD or typically developing children (TDC), and (2) noise beneficiaries or non-beneficiaries according to the observed performance during the experiment. This latest categorization, based on a new index we called "Noise Benefits Index" (NBI), was proposed to determine a neuropsychological profile positively sensitive to noise.
resultsNoise exposure reduced omission rate in children with ADHD, who were no longer different from TDC. Eye-blink rate was higher in children with ADHD but was not modulated by white noise. NBI indicated a significant relationship between ADHD and noise benefit. Strong correlations were observed between noise benefit and neuropsychological weaknesses in vigilance and inhibition. Participants who benefited from noise had an increased Go P300 in the noise condition.
conclusionThe improvement of children with ADHD with white noise supports both optimal stimulation theory and MBA model. However, eye-blink rate results question the dopaminergic hypothesis in the latter. The NBI evidenced a profile positively sensitive to noise, related with ADHD, and associated with weaker cognitive control.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.