While people often find kids suffering from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) rowdy and indisciplined, a new study
While people often find kids suffering from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) rowdy and indisciplined, a new study suggests that such children are actually trying to cope with a faulty perception of time.
Katya Rubia, who led the research team from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, pointed out that ADHD is characterised by a shortage of dopamine, which is known to affect time perception.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Causes-Symptoms-Diagnosis-Treatment-FAQ
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological disorder that affects normal behavior and impairs the ability to concentrate.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological disorder that affects normal behavior and impairs the ability to concentrate.
She revealed that her team used MRI scans to show that 12 boys with ADHD had less activity than usual in the frontal lobe, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, all areas of the brain known to be crucial for time perception.
The researcher further revealed that those boys were also worse than 12 other boys at estimating how long circles appeared on a screen before vanishing.
Rubia said that the team later gave the children the drug methylphenidate, aka Ritalin, which boosts dopamine levels and is used to treat ADHD.
She said that the treatment turned brain activity in the ADHD group indistinguishable from that of the healthy boys.
Advertisement
Quiz on ADHD
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD, generally abbreviated as ADHD) is considered a “neurobehavioral developmental disorder”. To know what this definition means and what the causes, symptoms and treatment for ADD are; give our ADHD quiz your best shot.
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD, generally abbreviated as ADHD) is considered a “neurobehavioral developmental disorder”. To know what this definition means and what the causes, symptoms and treatment for ADD are; give our ADHD quiz your best shot.
Writing about the study in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Rubia says that this is evidence that faulty time perception causes the major symptoms of ADHD, by making children perceive even short periods of inactivity as inordinately long and boring.
Advertisement
Research Finds Why ADHD Kids Move Around a Lot
A new study has explained why children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder move around a lot - it helps them stay alert to complete challenging tasks.
A new study has explained why children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder move around a lot - it helps them stay alert to complete challenging tasks.
LIN
