Autism: Exergaming Helps Patients With Executive Function Impairments

Children with autism who experience executive function impairments may benefit from "exergaming" according to a recent study conducted by researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

A recent study published in the International Journal for Sports and Exercise Medicine found that exergaming, more specifically the Makoto arena, provided the potential to work as a valuable addition to therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders who have motor and executive function impairments.

Executive function is critical for healthy adults to function independently. It involves redirecting higher thinking when changing plans and suppressing inappropriate behaviors.

In this recent study, researchers used the Makoto arena to help ASD children struggling with executive function and motor skills respond properly via speed. The research was conducted with 17 subjects that had autism diagnosis. They were involved in over 30 sessions for 1,800 total attempts to hit the targets.

"We think that the exertion of participating in this type of game helps to improve the neural connections in the brains of these children," UTMB's Claudia Hilton, associate professor, Tim Reistetter, said in a news release. "This is a small pilot study, but we hope to obtain grant funding to confirm these findings in a larger group of children with autism and to examine the changes that are occurring in the brain."

Researchers investigated the use of the Makoto arena as a way to examine how the participants combated a lack of physical activity. The arena was composed of a triangular shaped arena with pillars at each point, with lights and sounds at various levels of the pillars. The participants played the game and were required to hit the correct spots as they lit up on different pillars.

The participants took part in two-minute session in the arena, and the speed increased when they reached 95 percent accuracy. In total, they competed for an average of six sessions per week.

Study findings revealed significant improvements across both mental and physical arenas, particularly involving response time. Furthermore, all areas of executive function improve, particularly surrounding working memory. Motor ability also improved, especially in the areas of strength and agility.

"It is difficult to get children with autism to participate in physically exerting activities," Hilton said. "So finding an activity like the Makoto arena that they will actually do over an extended period like this is very exciting."

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