inhibitory function and sustained attention following galvanic vestibular stimulation in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Background and aim: in recent years, galvanic vestibular stimulation (gvs) has been used as an effective method in rehabilitation and treat-ment of psychological disorders in children and adults. this study was designed to evaluate the effect of gvs on response inhibition and susta-ined attention in children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (adhd) . methods: seventeen children with adhd, within the age range of 9−12 years, participated in this study. all participants were exposed to the go/no-go task. the behavioral outcomes and event-related potentials were recorded at baseline status, in sham condition, and after 20 minutes of exposure to gvs polarities, with an anode on the right mastoid region and a cathode on the left mastoid region. results: the results showed that there was a sig-nificant difference in reducing the behavioral response of the commission error (p < 0.05). but the reduction in behavioral responses to omission error and reaction time were not significant (p > 0.05). however, regarding erps, reduced latencies and increased amplitudes of n2 and p3 waves were observed in gvs intervention, com-pared to the baseline and sham conditions (p < 0.05). conclusion: the present results indicated the potential of gvs in improving of cognition func-tion in children with adhd and could help us develop a new strategy for rehabilitation of res-ponse inhibition disorders in the future.