Video games have long been thought to worsen ADHD, but current research seems to be turning the tables on popular opinion. L. Eugene Arnold, M.D. of Ohio State University is working to develop a video game system that improves ADHD through neurofeedback.
As students struggled to study for their final exams before the holidays, I noticed that news reports about Adderall use in campus began to appear more frequently. Adderall is a long-acting amphetamine used to treat ADHD, with effects that last up to 10 hours. It’s ability to boost focus, concentration, memory, and energy levels make it a popular drug among young professionals and college students, who need them to enhance performance. But does Adderall really work for this purpose?
Last year, researchers from the Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered that ADHD symptoms are partially caused by a problem in the brain’s reward pathway. Specifically, children with ADHD lack a protein in their brain, which causes a dysfunction in the way a person experiences reward and motivation. For instance, the prestige of getting good grades is not enough to motivate ADHD kids to do well in school; teachers need to provide extra engagement to get children interested in their lessons. These findings can probably explain why short attention spans and lack of focus are key behaviors of kids suffering from this disorder.