Category — Adult ADD

Are We a Nation of ‘Psuedo-ADD’ Sufferers?

Society’s Breakneck Pace Encourages Lack of Focus, Concentration, Some Say

Americans often have hundreds of television channels to choose from, and high-speed Internet access, e-mail and personal digital assistants keeping them connected – but if you are so “connected” that you’re beginning to feel rather disconnected, you may not be alone, some mental health experts say.

We are becoming a nation of attention deficit disorder sufferers, says Dr. John Ratey, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of “Delivered from Distraction.”

“We value not spending much time thinking about one thing,” Ratey says. “These are hallmark symptoms of people with what we call pseudo-ADD.”

A Nation of Multi-Taskers

Hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents have received a clinical ADD diagnosis for an inability to focus and concentrate in school. But what about the non-medical problem of “cultural” ADD?

Being able to multi-task effectively is a prized quality in our society. Take Eileen O’Connor, a former ABC News producer and now a wife, mother of five, law student and non-profit executive. She feels like being able to multi-task is the only way to cram all she needs to do into her hectic days.

“I would go to class, listen to the lecture and on one [computer] screen be taking notes,” O’Connor says. “And on another screen, I was on my e-mail, actually e-mailing [my kids] or people in the office.”

But Ratey argues that multi-tasking is not as efficient as we might think.

“The brain is not riveted, it’s not focused,” he says. “You’re seeing a lot more noise in the brain. You’re using more of your brain to try and pay attention.”

One recent study showed that workers don’t spend more than three minutes on any given task, and they’re usually interrupted every two minutes.

Other research said it takes a person 50 percent longer to complete two tasks done simultaneously than if they were done separately.

In other words, asking your brain to keep hitting pause and play doesn’t save time.

Kids in Overdrive

Even busy, supercharged moms like O’Connor worry about kids growing up in overdrive, trying to do a million things at once – even homework.

Jim Steyer is the chief executive officer and founder of Common Sense Media, a non-profit group that encourages family-friendly entertainment. He says Americans are raising a generation of media-saturated kids.

In fact, the latest figures show kids spend 8½ hours a day using different kinds of media – from television to computers to video games.

“They’re spending too many hours in front of the screen – either a TV screen or a computer screen – and it does contribute in some ways to attention deficit disorder,” Steyer said.

Video Game Helps Concentration

Some parents are trying to get their kids to refocus by using a video game.

Former teacher Peter Freer invented a concentration game called “Play Attention,” which borrows from technology and exercises developed by NASA to sharpen pilots’ focus.

To play the game, a person will put on a helmet with sensors attached to it. The goal is to use your powers of concentration to make a virtual alien rise to the top of the screen. If you get distracted, the alien will fall down the screen.

Freer says that after logging 40 to 60 hours playing the game over several weeks, children and adults showed permanent improvement in their attention spans.

“The more [you] do this, the better you’ll be able to do it at will,” Freer says.

But do you really need a video game to improve concentration? O’Connor and her family are determined to slow down a bit and enjoy the simpler things.

“A typical day is nuts,” O’Connor said. “But then there are times when we say, ‘Whoa, we just gotta stop here.’ We do stop with a family dinner, and I think that sort of brings us back to reality.”

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

real life: Dana Knight
Attention, please. Distracted workers often fail to produce

April 8, 2005

I was just about to get down to the nitty-gritty of writing when an evil little temporary tattoo I received in the mail peeked from beneath my towering stack of files.

Wonder what that would look like on my ankle?

I rushed to the restroom. One damp cloth and 30-second rub later, the funky, mustard-colored sun tattoo looked pretty darned good.

The work I was trying to do at my desk? Not so good.

But I’m back. Settled down in my chair with the Diet Pepsi I picked up on the way back from the tattoo task and ready to admit: ADD is a problem for me.

ADD as in Always Doubly Distracted at work. With e-mails, phone calls, life. With the boss, the touch-ups to makeup, the alluring infohole called the Internet, sometimes I feel like staying focused on one task is impossible.

My American co-workers are with me on this one and more distracted than ever, according to a recent Harvard University study.

The average employee’s attention span is, at most, 12 minutes. The average worker switches to a different task every three minutes and gets interrupted every two minutes, says Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California-Irvine who studies the effects of multitasking on workers. She reported her findings to Ergonomics Today.

With technology overload (experts estimate workers respond to at least 200 e-mails daily) and the multitasking culture, employees’ brains are about to fizzle out.

“We’re inundated with information, and we don’t really know what to do with it all or how to process it,” says Peter Freer, founder and chief executive officer of Play Attention, a funky new piece of technology that can retrain a brain to focus (I’ll explain later). “It comes in cell phones, PDAs, faxes, e-mails, regular phones, radio and TV. Many of us have attention problems.”

I just noticed a book on my desk called “Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results.” It says to always walk on stage as if you belong there and to be unpredictable. Interesting. Now what was I doing? Oh yeah.

Overworked employees are triply distracted and unproductive, says Paul Riley, a psychiatrist with St. Vincent Stress Center.

“You are not focused,” says Riley. “You make a lot of mistakes.”

It’s a problem, a big one for employers, who lose valuable hours in productivity and attention to detail, as well as other distraction downfalls.

Experts say distracted workers have more unscheduled absences and higher medical expenses.

Often, the mere mention of a sick co-worker can cause a distracted worker to . . .

OK, I’ll admit it. I need new return address labels, and I’m sick of the same old ones. So I just Googled it. There were 2.57 million hits.

And the bosses wonder why work isn’t getting done.

An estimated 8 million adult Americans struggle with the inattention disorders like attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School. But, they say, only 20 percent realize it.

It shouldn’t take your boss long to figure it out.

“It is very difficult for a person with an attention problem to survive in the workplace without being discovered,” says Freer. “They’ll start 20 or 30 projects and finish none of them.”

Freer’s technology, called Play Attention, has been a big hit among major corporations that realize the problems with unfocused workers.

The way it works is simple. The employee wears a helmet lined with sensors that monitor brain activity. The software is popped into the computer and the worker is instructed to focus on the computer screen and the tasks at hand.

For example, if a fax shows up on the computer screen, the user is to move it using only brainpower to the in box. Same for a piece of junk mail that shows up; the user should concentrate until the mail lands in the trash can.

The more the user practices, the more the brain improves and gets used to being focused.

Nikko Smith just got booted off “American Idol.” Bummer.

I haven’t used the Play Attention yet. Can you tell?

What are Biofeedback and Neurofeedback?

Feedback is an process which reflexively changes itself using its own forceful flow. The classic feedback device is the steam valve. As the steam causes a rotor to turn the centrifugal force of the rotation causes levers to rise, or strings to fly out, in the same way that if you rapidly turn yourself, your arms fly outward.

The levers on a steam device control the flow of steam, the faster the rotation the smaller the steam vent, the smaller the vent the slower the rotation. The size of the vent, the speed of rotation and the force of the arms closing the valve can all be adjusted so that the rotating axle maintains a consistent speed, so long as the supply of steam is constant.

Over one hundred years ago, French physiologist, Claude Bernard, who was characterized by Louis Pasteur “Physiology Itself” noted that most all of the human body’s systems are feedback regulated. In fact, they remain quite constant regardless of changes in the external environment. In 1932, Walter Cannon coined the term homeostasis to describe internal dynamic constancy.

A man eats food, his mouth fills, juices flow, his stomach fills, and his sensors send a signal, “satisfied.” He stops eating. A woman trots upstairs a bit too fast, her oxygen sensors are starved, and she starts breathing more deeply and quickly.

I glance out the window, the sun has moved to bounce off the white wall of the bank next door, my pupils contract, and I turn back toward the darkest wall of the room, or dash into my dark room. My pupils dilate.

Generally, body systems regulate through positive and negative feedback loops. The body has sensors that detect deviation from its normal internal range. This deviation activates effectors that essentially reverse the condition.

Such ordinary biological feedback of daily living can be enhanced by using mechanical transducers (devices which measure energies). I can press a piece of plastic against my palm which turns color depending on my temperature. Quickly I learn to make the color redder and redder (the color is arbitrary, it could be bluer and bluer). If I am prone to headaches I can prevent, inhibit, or relieve a headache by warming my hand. I may measure the way my skin conducts electricity and can learn to make my own skin less conductive which tends to relax me. The plastic has fed the information back to my conscious mind and my brain has learned consciously to warm my hand. My body is responding to a feedback loop. According to Merriam Webster, biofeedback is: “the technique of making unconscious or involuntary bodily processes (as heartbeats or brain waves) perceptible to the senses (as by the use of an oscilloscope) in order to manipulate them by conscious mental control.”

Early in the development of biofeedback attention was first focused on temperature (TEMP) change. Temperature is easily and cheaply monitored and learned change is markedly reliable. Muscle tension (EMG) soon came along. The techniques of measuring muscle tension are perhaps as easily done as temperature measurement; but the equipment is more costly. TEMP and EMG are the most widely practiced forms of biofeedback.

In 1970 Barry Sterman noted that he could readily train cats to strengthen the amplitude of signals at 13 pulses per second generated in the brain’s Fissure of Roland. Later he observed that cats trained to make stronger 13-14 Hz signals resisted epileptogenic drugs (specifically, injected hydrazine). D.A.Quirk, a Canadian penologist, and G.von Hilsheimer, a Florida neurofeedback specialist, applied Sterman’s 1970 method to 2776 felons imprisoned in the Ontario Correctional Institute near Toronto and to about 10,000 clients seen in hospital and in outpatient care. The recidivism in these prisoners (15% in 3 years after discharge, compared to 40 – 100% in typical prisons) reduced significantly.

Subsequently a professional movement has been created using EEG biofeedback in the treatment of ADHD (pioneered by Professor Lubar at the University of Tennessee). In Europe a significant network of practitioners has been organized by Prof. Dr. Jiri Tyl of Prague who has significantly contributed to the proof of the efficacy of EEG biofeedback (see EEG Biofeedback FAQ)

Neurofeedback is a specific type of biofeedback that makes brainwaves perceptible through the use of sensors attached to the head. The brain operates by sending minute electrical impulses to the many cells that comprise it. When the brain is excited it emits a specific frequency range of waves. The same is true if it is tired or focused. This process is similar to a radio tower that gives off radio waves. Brainwave sensors called electrodes monitor brainwaves emanating from the brain much the same way a radio receiver monitors different radio frequencies – if I change my car radio from 101.5 FM to 107 FM, I get to listen to a different station. So, the sensors pick up these signals like little radio antennae. A receiver, like a radio receiver, amplifies them and sends them to a computer where they are changed to sound and/or pictures on the computer monitor. The pictures and sounds make the current state of the brain perceptible because that information is displayed via sound and pictures on the computer screen. So, if a person is overly excited, she can see this on the screen in a graph or perhaps a screen character rapidly buzzing around. If she wishes to calm herself, she learns to slow the computer character which is reflecting the necessary relaxing brainwave pattern. By repeating this process many times, she can eventually learn to place her brain and body in a calm state without the neurofeedback equipment. This learning achieved by biofeedback is robust, stable, reliable, and readily acquired.

There is significant evidence that hyperactive boys tend to make high amplitude slow brain waves which are associated with inefficient faster brain waves. The child can be taught to reduce the amplitude of signals slower than 7 pulses per second (<7 Hz for Hertz) and to increase the strength of the signals running 13-14 Hertz. Such children tend to become more social, more effective at school work, and they perform more adroitly on IQ and other tests. One can think of this process as switching radio stations at will. Neurofeedback students learn to switch from inattentive (daydreaming) states to focused states at will.

See www.drbiofeedback.com, www.aapb.com, www.isnr.org, www.pocket-neurobics.com

George von Hilsheimer, Ph.D., F.R.S.H., and Peter Freer, MAEd

From a recent news story – Drug withdrawal weighs on Shire:

Shares in Shire Pharmaceuticals have fallen 10% after its best-selling drug was withdrawn from sale in Canada amid reports linking it to 20 sudden deaths.

Regulators said data showed 14 children and six adults had died after taking the usual recommended doses of hyperactivity treatment Adderall XR.

Shire said it disagreed with the findings and remained confident in the safety and effectiveness of the drug.

The Hampshire-based firm is the UK’s third largest pharmaceutical company.

Most sales of Adderall XR come from the US.

The US FDA has also issued a Public Health Advisory to notify healthcare professionals that Health Canada, the Canadian drug regulatory agency, has suspended the sale of Adderall XR in the Canadian market.

Adderall XR (amphetamine)
Audience: Neuropsychiatric and other healthcare professionals

FDA issued a Public Health Advisory to notify healthcare professionals that Health Canada, the Canadian drug regulatory agency, has suspended the sale of Adderall XR in the Canadian market. Adderall XR is a controlled release amphetamine used to treat patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The Canadian action was based on U.S. post-marketing reports of sudden deaths in pediatric patients. FDA is continuing to evaluate these and other post-marketing reports of serious adverse events in children, adolescents, and adults being treated with Adderall and related products. Adderall XR is approved in the United States for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 6-12 years old with ADHD, and Adderall, the immediate release formulation of the drug, is approved for pediatric patients with ADHD.

More information can be found on the FDA Adderall and Adderall XR Information page.

FDA ALERT [2/09/2005] – Sudden Deaths in Children

Health Canada has suspended marketing of Adderall XR products from the Canadian market due to concern about reports of sudden unexplained death (SUD) in children taking Adderall and Adderall XR.  SUD has been associated with amphetamine abuse and reported in children with underlying cardiac abnormalities taking recommended doses of amphetamines, including Adderall and Adderall XR.  In addition, a very small number of cases of SUD have been reported in children without structural cardiac abnormalities taking Adderall.  At this time, FDA cannot conclude that recommended doses of Adderall can cause SUD, but is continuing to carefully evaluate these data.

More information can also be found on the FDA Patient Information Sheet: Adderall and Adderall XR Extended-Release Capsules and the Alert for Healthcare Professionals: Adderall and Adderall XR (amphetamine).

From the FDA prescribing information for Adderall:

Long-Term Use: The effectiveness of ADDERALL XR for long-term use, i.e., for more than 3 weeks in children and 4-weeks in adults, has not been systematically evaluated in controlled trials. Therefore, the physician who elects to use ADDERALL XR™ for extended periods should periodically re-evaluate the longterm usefulness of the drug for the individual patient.

From a recent Wall Street Journal story: 
What If Einstein Had Taken Ritalin? ADHD’s Impact on Creativity

In American schools these days, countless class clowns are sitting down and shutting up. In chemistry labs, students who used to mix chemicals haphazardly, out of an insatiable curiosity, now focus on their textbooks. In English classes, kids who once stared out the windows, concocting crazy life stories about passersby, now face the blackboard.

The question is whether the Ritalin Revolution will sap tomorrow’s work force of some of its potential genius. What will be the repercussions in corporations, comedy clubs, and research labs?

Some researchers now wonder if would-be Einsteins and Edisons will choose different career paths because their creativity and drive are dulled by ADHD drugs.

Too many kids, especially boys who are merely rambunctious, are being given the drugs with just cursory evaluations, says William Pollack, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School.

In his ongoing research into boyhood, Dr. Pollack has found anecdotal evidence that Ritalin renders some kids less interested in pursuing creative opportunities. One boy he studied had been active in his school’s science club. After he was put on Ritalin, he felt like the spark inside him was extinguished. He lost interest in the science club and dropped out. Eventually, he stopped taking Ritalin, returned to the club, and developed a flashlight alarm system that won a major science competition.

ADHD Strategies for School & Work

Diffused attention during the learning process greatly decreases the amount of information that can be transferred from short-term memory to long-term. When questioning an ADHD student about the material just presented during a lesson, typically he’ll recall bits and pieces of the material presented, but seldom a holistic perspective. Other areas of life are affected including everything from personal interactions to work or school.

School

Diffused attention also makes reading a challenge as the student must read a passage two to four times before he can gain fundamental meaning from the text. Academic work becomes tiring and tedious. Children often claim homework is ‘boring’ after failing to be successful at simple assignments they are highly capable of accomplishing in short order if their attention were not diffused. Equating boredom with academic work is usually the result of lack of success and an assignment that is not highly stimulating.

Social Interactions

Socially, diffused attention causes an inability to perceive social cues. A look of disapproval, a simple shake of the head meaning NO, and other social cues are overlooked. For adults, this can cause conflict between workers or embarrassing situations at social gatherings. For a child, peers tend to shy away from kids who cannot recognize social cues. ADHD kids are labeled as nuisances and are often excluded from parties, etc. ADHD kids also discern themselves from their peer which results in reduced self-esteem.

Adults

 Typical symptoms of ADHD such as hyperactivity, poor organizational skills, distractibility, impulsivity, etc., often are challenges for the adult in the workplace. A recent article in WebMD.com reports that Joseph Biederman, MD, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has surveyed ADHD adults and found that the incomes of households with an ADHD member are substantially lower than households without an ADHD member. Biederman calculates that households with an ADHD member have incomes that are $10,791 lower for high school graduates and $4,334 lower for college graduates. This extrapolates to an annual revenue loss of close to $77 billion in the US.

Biederman reports that an adult with ADHD has greater difficulty keeping a job due to lack of organizational and social skills. In fact, he thinks the disorder may actually make it more difficult to get an appropriate education to obtain a job that offers a higher pay scale. Lost days at work due to ADHD also provide a negative financial impact. “About 50% of the people with ADHD who had jobs in the survey said they lost work directly related to their ADHD symptoms,” says Biederman. “The symptoms of ADHD are very difficult for employers to deal with.”

However, there are strategies that can be employed to maximize function, skill, and satisfaction in the workplace.

Know your strengths and weaknesses

It is important to realize that many ADHD adults have successful careers. Edison, Mozart, and even Einstein may have had AD/HD.  Success seems to be linked to employing good coping strategies once you’ve discovered your strengths and know your weaknesses. Once you become aware of your specific set of challenges, it will become easier for you to plan a strategy. Therefore, consider your unique characteristics as you design your strategies. Below is a checklist describing many of the symptoms typically associated with ADHD. Strategies for coping are listed below each symptom.

Distractibility – people walking by your desk, or talking near you, distract you from your work

• Try to place yourself in the least distracting environment. This may be a private office or cubicle with little foot travel by other office workers. You may retreat to a conference room if possible.
• Maintain a memo pad to keep ideas and assignments from slipping away if you become distracted. Use the memo pad to jot down notes when you receive a phone call.
• Come in early or do your work when others are not in the office.
• Don’t multi-task. Set a goal to finish your current task before starting another.
• Background noise, sometimes known as “white noise” can be effective. Special white noise CDs, audio tapes, or earphones are available for this purpose. Simple classical or new age music may also help.

Poor Memory – you can’t recall dates, names, or appointments.

• First and foremost, buy a day planner and use it religiously to keep track of your schedule and upcoming tasks.
• Many freeware and commercial computer programs are available that automate scheduling and task reminders.
• Make use of pocket recorders. Current recorders no longer need audio tapes as they record on microchips. These are effective for personal reminders or note taking at meetings.
• Write checklists and set reasonable goals for projects.

Poor Organization – you can’t seem to finish projects on time or you fail to keep good records.

• If possible, find a job that does not require long-term task management.
• Set goals for your current task by breaking it into a series of manageable tasks. Mark the deadline for each mini-task with a timer. Computer programs are available for this or you may use a simple kitchen timer.
• Reward yourself when you reach a goal.
• Use an automated computer scheduler to set meeting times. These usually come with an alarm. Set it alert you five to ten minutes before each meeting.
• Allow adequate time between meetings or projects to you do not overload or overbook your schedule.
• Partner with a co-worker who has good organizational skills. This person may act as your coach. The coach will help set goals and reward you as you achieve your goals.

Impulsivity – you respond, at times, without thinking of consequences, sometimes your respond with outbursts

• Have a trusted co-worker provide constructive feedback about your interactions with other staff. This co-worker may also act as a personal coach to role-play appropriate responses to common office dynamics.
• From this feedback, develop strategies to be used when you become frustrated.
• Yoga and some martial arts classes may prove effective in teaching relaxation and concentration skills. A meditation class may be effective, too.

Procrastination – you put things off until the last minute sometimes frustrating or angering colleagues

• Set goals for your current task by breaking it into a series of manageable tasks. Mark the deadline for each mini-task with a timer. Computer programs are available for this or you may use a simple kitchen timer. Reward yourself when you reach a goal.
• Use an automated computer scheduler to set meeting times. These usually come with an alarm.
• Partner with a co-worker who has good organizational skills. This person may act as your coach. The coach will help set project goals and reward you as you achieve your goals.

Hyperactivity – you find it very difficult to sit still during meetings or at your desk o Maximize your personal time like breaks, lunch, etc. to exercise and burn off some energy. This can include walking around the block or trips up and down the stairwell.

• Break up your day to include trips to the mailroom, photocopier, fax, and restroom. o Bring a notepad to meetings and take copious notes.
• A rubber band or paperclip in your free hand can provide stimulation while you take notes.

Daydreaming – when you find something boring you block out the stimuli and think of something more fun.

• Remember, if you have a job you truly enjoy, you’ll find you’ll daydream less. o A job with challenging responsibilities will provide less opportunity for daydreaming than a job shuffling papers.
• Set goals for your current task by breaking it into a series of manageable tasks. Mark the deadline for each mini-task with a timer. Computer programs are available for this or you may use a simple kitchen timer.
• Reward yourself when you reach a goal.

Avoiding details – details like paperwork bore you and you find them virtually impossible to finish o Rule number one; if you can get someone else to do it properly (like an office assistant), let them handle paperwork.

• Make filing more fun by color coding folders and using catchy labels. o Personalize your filing (sensibly) by using fun labels and folders – possibly color coded.
• For paperwork that requires immediate attention have your filing system close at hand, perhaps directly on your desk

Poor social skills – your interactions with your colleagues are marked by your interruptions, blunt comments, or poor listening skills.

• Have a trusted co-worker provide constructive feedback about your interactions with other staff. This co-worker may also act as a personal coach to role-play appropriate responses to common office dynamics.
• Pay particular attention to social cues and work on them with a personal coach to develop awareness and appropriate response.
• From this feedback, develop strategies to be used when you become frustrated.
• Learn to pick up on social cues more readily. Some adults with ADHD have a hard time picking up nonverbal cues that they are angering a co-worker or supervisor.

Summary

A person with ADHD must develop skills and strategies that will enable him/her to function optimally in the workplace. Should skills and strategies fail, it may be necessary to switch careers after careful assessment of your work attributes and skills.

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
–Hebrew Proverb

Learning takes place by construction of neural networks. Neural networks are the “whispering” of neurons to each other. Neurons are brain cells that communicate with each other via an electrochemical process that carries neurotransmitters across the division between the neurons (the synapse). Our five senses process information (external stimuli) and then select certain neural connections to become active.

In the recent past, scientists believed this network building or neural activation to be deterministic – the genes you are born with would determine the networks that could develop. However, it has been proved that activation is a random selection among many possible neural connections that could occur. It is not something that happens by deterministic design.

The ADHD Connection

No one, that’s right, no one, knows why people have attention problems. Theories abound, but since there is no real pathology associated with attention problems (other than theoretical) it cannot be physically located to be surgically corrected. However, we do know that new information (sensory input) enters the brain through preexisting networks, which is why it is imperative to provide challenging stimulation in early childhood. If the input is not new, it can trigger memory. If it is new it can trigger learning. Cognitive psychology refers to this process as constructivism: The learner builds his or her own knowledge on his current knowledge base, but only in response to a challenge. It is evident that some persons are not born with the neural networks that facilitate focused attention.

Furthermore, the old notion that early childhood experiences have little impact on later development has been proven false. We now know that the brain is directly and decisively affected by early experiences. This includes the architecture of the brain and the nature and extent of adult capacities; the actual capacity to form new neural networks is directly affected by early childhood experiences.

It was also thought that brain development is linear: the brain’s capacity to learn and change grows steadily as an infant matures into adulthood. It is now known that brain development is non-linear: there are optimum times for acquiring different kinds of knowledge and skills. For example, it is often easier for a very young child to learn a new language than a person past the age of 25.

However, the brain can grow and continue development through death provided the right conditions are met. In light of this, a recent research study quoted by WebMD Medical News shows that fluency in two languages or more prevents some of the effects of aging on brain function. The study reports that bilingual people have a greater capacity to stay focused on a task than people who spoke only one language. Inability to stay focused on a task is a hallmark of the aging brain’s decline. Bilingual people also seemed more readily able to filter out distraction or irrelevant data. This suggests that the function, capacity, or neural network involved in bilingual language processing may be the same processing needed to stay attentive. The study appears in the June, 2004 issue of the Journal Psychology and Aging.

It’s essential that early stimulation be provided as it seems to lay the foundation for growth and capacity in later life. It appears that stimulation in utero may be a good beginning.

To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.
–Abraham Maslow

As I’ve maintained for years, if we keep thinking of ADHD as unalterable brain damage, dysfunction, or dysregulation, it will be difficult to move forward with positive change. I contend that ADHD is a trait in the spectrum of human neurological variation. It is essentially no different that other genetic traits like intelligence, or eye and hair color, etc. Therefore, a new conceptualization of the basic nature and etiology of ADHD behaviors is necessary in which current known research about human potential and learning are incorporated to produce a scientific, systematic approach to teach sustained attention and improve subordinate deficits in related cognitive skills like short-term memory.

The problem is simply diffused attention. While this statement is quite simple, diffused attention greatly affects every aspect our one’s life. It makes the learning process much more difficult and therefore subsequently affects one academically, socially, and personally. However, having focused attention to a task, currently termed fluid intelligence, can be improved by providing correct challenges – both cognitive and behavioral. Therefore, one can learn to focus on any level of stimulation. The brain has a remarkable ability to compensate by either strengthening current neural networks.

In the very recent past, the brain was considered a gray lump that declined in function as it aged. We now know that this is entirely false. The brain is in a constant state of reorganization. This restructuring/reorganization of the brain is termed neuroplasticity. One of the root words is plastic. Its denotation is moldable or pliable like clay. It is not used in the sense of the hard plastic case covering a computer. Recent advances in brain scanning and analysis have revealed that the brain is plastic – always reorganizing not just in a sense of shuffling files, but architecturally as well. The wiring or neural circuitry is constantly changing depending on external challenges.

Children and adults with brain injury or developmental difficulties offer dramatic proof of the brain’s amazing capacity to compensate if provided a correct challenge that will stimulate the growth of a compensatory neural network or strengthen a previously existing one. Many neurological journals report cases where children who lose language due to a stroke at a young age often recover the ability to speak. This is due the fact that the brain is able to shift this function to another area (compensation through adaptive neural networks). According to UCLA pediatric neurologist Dr. Donald Shields, “if there’s a way to compensate, the developing brain will find it.”

Scientists apply the term neuroplasticity to the action of brain growth and adaptation in response to challenge. Provided the correct challenge and environment, children and adults frequently compensate (shift brain function from one area to another) when a certain area of the brain cannot function correctly. It is documented in many medical and neurological journals that the brain will increase activity in another region to overcome loss of another region.

Implications for ADHD

There is no question that the brain can compensate even if it has problems focusing attention. However, it has to be provided the correct environment prompting challenge. As recently as twenty years ago, scientists believed that the genes we were born with wholly determined the structure of our brains. However, current extensive research performed by scientists worldwide proves that how our brains develop, learn, and grow depends on the vital interaction between nature and nurture. Nature, or more accurately, genetic endowment, is directly affected by the environment, care, challenges, and teachings received (nurture).

As recently as twenty years ago, scientists believed that the genes we were born with wholly determined the structure of our brains. However, current extensive research performed by scientists worldwide proves that how our brains develop, learn, and grow depends on the vital interaction between nature and nurture. Nature, or more accurately, genetic endowment, is directly affected by the environment, care, challenges, and teachings received (nurture). Furthermore, the old notion that early childhood experiences have little impact on later development has been proven false. We now know that the brain is directly and decisively affected by early experiences. This includes the architecture of the brain and the nature and extent of adult capacities; the actual capacity to form new neural networks is directly affected by early childhood experiences.

It was also thought that brain development is linear: the brain’s capacity to learn and change grows steadily as an infant matures into adulthood. It is now known that brain development is non-linear: there are optimum times for acquiring different kinds of knowledge and skills. For example, it is often easier for a very young child to learn a new language than a person past the age of 25. However, the brain can grow and continue development through death provided the right conditions are met.

When I was training at university, psychologists contended that an infant’s brain was very inactive. However, scans now reveal an infant’s brain to be three times as active as that of a college student. Much has changed in the last ten years. In upcoming commentary, I’ll describe how learning takes place, its connection to neural networks and neuroplasticity, and site studies which support that brain development can be greatly enhanced via cognitive re-education.

In upcoming articles, I’ll discuss how we learn. We’ll look at this perspective from an external cognitive approach to learning and then proceed to an internal perspective involving the actual structural neural changes that occur when we learn. Finally, I’ll examine the molecular (DNA) changes that trigger the learning process and encode it to long-term memory.

One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common sense to apply it.
-Persion Proverb

If we take a cognitive view, from a purely external viewpoint, we can examine how we learn. Learning involves the teacher, the learner, the learning process, and the cognitive and behavioral changes associated with learning.

Flow Diagram

The teaching method is the series of actions that the teacher uses to present the lesson. The teacher could be a computer, but is ordinarily a human who includes both content and organization of teaching materials. The teaching method encompasses both how and what is learned, the teacher’s attributes (mood, knowledge base, etc.), and the learning environment. Examples may include use of preparatory sets, computerized instruction, repeating instructions, or providing an example, etc.

The learner’s attributes include the learner’s entire schema: all existing knowledge, metacognitive skills, disabilities, and memory capabilities. Picture this as everything the learner brings to class.

The learning process demands that the student pay as much attention to the teaching method as possible in order to assimilate the data provided. If this occurs, then cognitive processing of the data can occur which leads to integration and organization with prior information in the learner’s schema. A person with an diffused attention receives bit and pieces of the lesson information. This typically results in the transfer of bits and pieces of information being transferred to long term memory.

Cognitive outcomes are actual changes in the learner’s knowledge or memory system including acquisition of information, procedures, and strategies. This includes understanding of information. This is the result of developing neural networks. While educators do not explicitly state that their goal is to develop a new concept through neural networking, this is precisely what they are doing.

Outcome performance is the learner’s performance or actual behavioral changes including retention and transfer behaviors related to new tasks. This is quantified by a test of the cognitive outcomes or qualified by anecdotal records. In essence, the learner is transferring or generalizing what has been acquired cognitively.

When diffused attention allows only bits and pieces of information to be transferred to long-term memory, then cognitive outcomes are affected because both the meaning and significance of the presented information are altered. A good example is watching a person with diffused attention attempt to read. They scan the same page three or four times before they get the full meaning. Many college students reported to me that they read the text book four times! This obviously makes learning more difficult.