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ADHD is commonly called a disorder. But new science suggests it may have helped our ancestors find food and survive. Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and skittish attention span: The symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to be viewed as a weakness or a mental health condition that needs treatment. .
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But ADHD also has advantages that have been scientifically researched. People with ADHD are considered creative and dynamic, they are socially and emotionally competent, and they have high cognitive abilities.
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And that’s not all. In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania attempted to trace the origins of ADHD. Co-author David Barack writes about “.
So is ADHD an important part of evolution? According to the new study, you could say yes. The research team says ADHD developed as an adaptive survival strategy for our ancestors. Their study was published in Proceedings of The Royal Society B (Biological Sciences).
Picking berries with ADHD
To get to the bottom of the matter, researchers analyzed data from 457 adults, 206 of whom reported having ADHD symptoms.
Test subjects were asked to collect as many berries as possible from virtual bushes in a video game, in a limited time.
They had to decide again and again: Do they continue picking in the same place where the berries are running out or change locations to explore a new bush? The latter cost valuable seconds.
Those with ADHD traits tended to shift more quickly and spend less time on a single bush, effectively picking more berries than the group without ADHD symptoms. The latter, in turn, tended to spend much more time on a bush in the hope of optimizing performance.
The researchers were surprised by this result. They assumed that rapidly changing bushes would lead to lower yields. “But higher ADHD symptoms lead to a higher reward rate and better performance,” says study co-author Barack.
ADHD as a survival strategy
This tactic has advantages: it avoids exploiting resources in a single location, while at the same time exploring new areas, a strategy that may have been vital to the survival of hunter-gatherers in the past.
Other studies support this thesis of evolutionary advantage. They have shown that a nomadic lifestyle is associated with genetic mutations that play a role in ADHD.
All of this could explain why ADHD is so common today; The difference is that now the traits that used to prove valuable in foraging are no longer as advantageous in contemporary society, at least where resources are abundant.
Dopamine is broken down more quickly in people with ADHD than in people without it. The constant effort to obtain this important neurotransmitter can lead people with ADHD to constantly switch between different tasks without actually completing any of them.
However, the researchers emphasize the need for more research because, they say, the importance of their study is limited to participants’ self-assessments of their ADHD.
In the next step, the researchers want to perform a diagnosis with people who have been diagnosed with ADHD, rather than performing a self-diagnosis. Additionally, they will set real-life foraging tasks, which require more effort than any online game.
This article was originally published in German.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2024 at 08:00 pm IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website lastly .com).
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