But when 30 men and 30 women took Rizzo's virtual tests last year, he found no significant difference in scores. Other researchers were impressed. He really stumbled across something that no one had known before. In particular, Rizzo sought to design a technique that diagnoses inattentiveness when it isn't accompanied by the more obvious hyperactivity. Rizzo and his team designed a 360-degree virtual classroom featuring desks, blackboards, a teacher and windows.
Programmers can feed in a plethora of distractions to accompany a series of cognitive tests.
In time, Rizzo envisions individualized therapy routines. Rizzo has completed initial testing of the system with undiagnosed children. Though his ADHD work is far from finished, Rizzo's peers are cautiously optimistic. The major challenge now is to continue doing clinical trials to validate the technique. Links to K-12 learning and parenting resources.