ADHD causes the brain’s command center to work more slowly
You can not sit still, you feel restless and constantly lose concentration in teaching. Maybe you are showing restlessness outwardly, or maybe it is invisible to the outside world.
There may be several reasons why you have trouble keeping your attention, but this description could well come from a child or adult with the developmental disorder ADHD, which stands for “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”.
ADHD probably affects three percent of school children. That is, approximately one student in each school class statistically has the condition, and it often shows up around the age of 7, with problems in three areas:
– Attention problems, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Men ADHD can lead to different symptoms, says Professor Per Hove Thomsen at Aarhus University.
– Some have a high degree of hyperactivity and can not sit still. They have an internal engine that runs too fast. Others just have attention deficit disorders. It is a subtype we call ADD or silent ADHD, which has been rejected because it is difficult to spot, says Thomsen, who is also superior at Aarhus University Hospital.
Many consider ADHD as a condition a child has, men in about 50 percent continued symptoms in adulthood. It is estimated that one to three percent of adults have ADHD.
Being easily distracted
Untreated ADHD often presents major challenges in everyday life. Both for people with ADHD and for the outside world.
– In everyday life, people with ADHD may have difficulty staying focused. If they are in a conversation or in one, they have problems focusing, says Per Hove Thomsen.
There is a myth that people with ADHD can not concentrate at all. They can, but they must be motivated and just focus on one thing at a time. Too many concentration tasks in a row distract them.
– It has problems with being flexible with the attention – that is, changing focus. They are easily distracted, Thomsen explains.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder also often makes it difficult to get an overview of the day and week. Even small things like brushing your teeth can be delayed or forgotten because your head floats with impressions and thoughts.
ADHD feels like a bombardment of impressions and an emotional roller coaster
Outwardly, ADHD symptoms can be irritating, disturbing, or incomprehensible, but an insight into how ADHD is experienced creates an understanding of the sometimes unpredictable behavior.
Having ADHD is often described as an emotional roller coaster. From 0 to 100 in seconds.
People with ADHD quickly go from incredibly excited to furious or dull and sad, writes the Danish ADHD association on its website.
Several researchers have argued in recent years for emotional fluctuations is a central part of the ADHD symptoms.
A meta-analysis of 77 studies on emotion regulation among children with ADHD from 2016 has found that children do not have problems knowing their own or others’ emotions.
On the other hand, they have trouble responding to emotions and reactions.
I add to the emotional fluctuations, people with ADHD fail to filter out all the irrelevant impressions of everyday life. They have trouble closing their eyes to sensory stimuli such as sounds, touches and smells.
It can feel as if they are being bombarded with impressions, it is said in several studies.
The brain’s command center fails
ADHD is a so-called neuropsychiatric disorder, which is not caused by problems with the nervous system and thus the brain.
There are still many gaps and researchers’ knowledge of the more precise conditions in the brain that cause ADHD symptoms, but they have a great deal of overall knowledge.
– A common feature for most people with ADHD is that they have a reduced activity in the frontal lobes – the part of the brain that matures most recently, in someone in their early 20s. It is the part of the brain that acts as a command center for the rest of the brain and decides which impulses from other parts of the brain are to be carried out in life, says Per Hove Thomsen.
The frontal lobes have a high concentration of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, which are mixed in drive, motivation and reward, respectively, as well as energy, stress, attention and focus.
At the same time, the veterinarians say that part of its drugs, which have been shown to be effective against ADHD, regulate the concentration of dopamine, says Thomsen.
This suggests that the dopamine balance is involved in the ADHD symptoms.
Maturation in a specific area of the brain is delayed
The frontal lobes contain the prefrontal cortex, which is the center of the brain’s executive function.
They apply to the ability to plan, make decisions, control yourself and assess the consequences of actions. Therefore, the prefrontal cortex is indispensable in many situations – for example, when you go on vacation.
– When we have to carry out complicated behaviors, such as taking a plane, there are many processes that must be coordinated. We have to set the alarm clock, turn it off again, put on clothes, find travel documents and luggage, and then we have to get a taxi, says brain researcher David Woldbye at the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen.
However, in people with ADHD, the development of this brain area lags behind.
– Scans of the brain show that a person with ADHD on average has a delay of the maturation processes that take place in the forehead lobes, of three to five years, says Per Hove Thomsen.
The fear center of the brain is weakened
For the emotional fluctuations people with ADHD experience, changes in and other area of the brain, the amygdala, may be part of the cause.
The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped nucleus in the temporal lobe of the brain that plays an important role in memory processes, decision making and emotional reactions such as fear, anxiety and rage.
However, several studies show that the amygdala is smaller in people with ADHD.
An international study from 2017 has measured the size of a number of brain areas in 1,713 people diagnosed with ADHD and 1,529 people without the diagnosis.
– There has not been much focus on the amygdala when trying to understand the ADHD symptoms. But this result suggests that we may have to see ADHD in the light of an underdeveloped amygdala, says neuropsychologist Anders Gade.
Despite the preliminary indications, the roll of the amygdala remains unclear. Researchers know that it plays a role in other disorders, but they still can not decide whether it also applies to ADHD, said Per Hove Thomsen.
The amygdala is also weakened in people with autism and schizophrenia, among others. Therefore, researchers cannot determine if the weakened amygdala is specific for ADHD, he explains.
ADHD increases the risk of a number of problems
You can have a good life and cope well with ADHD, but it is still important that researchers and society gain more knowledge about the disease, for the increased risk of a number of problems in life.
– This includes lower education, lower wages, unemployment, divorce and previous death, as well as drug abuse and crime, says Thomsen.
The discouraged result has, among other things, been found in a study from Copenhagen Business School in 2014 where the researchers calculated the cost of untreated ADHD. The results were:
– On all parameters we examined, people with ADHD, who have not received help early in life, perform significantly worse than their siblings, and worse than average, said psychologist at the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University Anne-Mette Lange in Radio 4s program “Skull fracture” in 2020.
ADHD may have been a survival benefit
Despite the risk, many can make ADHD an advantage, says Per Hove Thomsen.
– One of the things that characterizes ADHD is the power to act and the wealth of ideas. These are people who dare to deal with and can think creatively. They do not think so much about the consequences, but throw themselves into it. Many of them are very outgoing, he says in an article in Zetland magazine.
For example, you will find studies on there are several entrepreneurs among people with ADHD.
A scientific theory is that in the prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies it was an advantage to have people with ADHD traits in the group:
There was a need for individuals as new ideas, reacted quickly to new stimuli and took the lead when exploring new areas.
Although the theory cannot be verified, it provides a possible explanation for why ADHD has not disappeared in the natural range.
References:
Per Hove Thomsen and Dorte Damm: A life in chaos: About adults with ADHD 2nd edition ed. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag. 2011. Reference.
Christine A. Lee et al .: Formation of first impressions of children: The role of symptoms of attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder and emotional dysregulation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry2017. Summary. Doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12835
Paulo A. Graziano and Alexis Garcia: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and children’s emotional dysregulation: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 2016. Doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.04.011
K. Amunts et al .: Cytoarchitectural mapping of the human amygdala, hippocampal region, and entorhinal cortex: intersubject variability and probability maps. Anat Embryol2005. Summary. Doi.org/10.1007/s00429-005-0025-5
David Daley et al .: Private and Social Costs of ADHD: Cost Analysis. Book published by Syddansk Universitetsforlag2014. Summary.
DA Lerner et al .: Entrepreneurship and Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder: A Large-Scale Study Involving the Clinical State of ADHD. Small Bus Econ, 2019. Doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0061-1
© Videnskab.dk. Translated by Lars Nygaard for forskning.no. Read the original case on videnskab.dk here.