Thanks Jonty30. I'll read the rest of the article when I finish my ice cream and stream a couple episodes of some TV shows. And I have to call my doctor. Oh, and check stocks.
What some call ADHD, I call multitasking. ;^)
Posted on 07/04/2024 10:44:14 PM PDT by Jonty30
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently released a study on the potential evolutionary benefits of ADHD. They analyzed data from 457 adults who played an online foraging game, where the objective was to collect as many berries as possible within an eight minute span.
Players could choose to either keep collecting berries from the bushes in their original location, or move to a new patch. (By the way, this sounds an awful lot like a game I used to play on Neopets!) Moving would cost them a brief time out, and there was no guarantee that the patch would have as many berries as their current location, but the number of berries you could get from each bush went down each time you foraged it again.
Along with the game, subjects also took a survey designed to assess whether they had symptoms of ADHD. This didn’t constitute a full or formal diagnosis, but it screened for traits like having difficulty concentrating.
When the researchers compared the survey results with the game play stats, they found that people with ADHD symptoms played differently—and more effectively—than their peers. They were more likely to move on to another bush, and collected an average of 602 berries compared with 521.
I probably don’t need to tell you that this isn’t exactly a perfect model for actual foraging. The researchers do hope to do a similar experiment in the future involving in-person foraging, where they’d use people with formal ADHD diagnoses as their experimental subjects, but that would obviously be a much more complicated experiment to run.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
If I have a single objective that needs to be met, I can work on that objective once I'm into it pretty much forever and I will forego sleep and eating and other bodily needs that I don't feel the need to do in order to get it done.
One application is perhaps, if your child has ADHD, take all his homework away from him except one subject and he has to finish subject before you give him the next one, until he has completed it.
Spanking seemed to work fine for my kids (something I needed, but didn’t get, by the way), but I realize other kids have different needs. In any case taking them to shrinks will leave a paper trail that can only come back to haunt them.
Many kids do improve by spanking, but ADHD is a brain structure problem. People with true ADHD have a smaller reserve of concentration and they have a poor executive ability to put less important stuff away and concentrate on what is needed.
Much of it can be addressed through proper strategies, like putting all other homework away from the homework you are doing, because you have poor executive ability to not touch the other homework until you are finished what you are working on.
bump
However, I'm wondering why then ADHD isn't more prevalent among females, since it is the females who (generally speaking) were responsible for "gathering," while the males were in charge of "hunting."
Regards,
ADHD and Aspergers runs in my family. It is a more complicated situation than it is typically characterized as. It wasn’t even recognized as a disorder until the 1960s. My cousin who had characteristics similar to myself was put on medication. My dad who has the same type of personality didn’t believe this was a good idea... and I kind of agree with him.
My grandson who is a genius was put on medication and I feel it changed his personality in a negative way.
decades ago, we had NO NAMES for anything and kids got along and graduated....we knew some kids were different and it was just accepted as them being them....no stigma...no special classes...
Can you imagine how Nicola Tesla would have been medically treated if he had been born just 20 ago? Nicola was a brilliant but rather strange young man. Literally creating and playing with Ball Lighting was one of his favorite passtimes. He had no one looking out for his business interests. Didn’t Westinghouse and Thomas Edison steal many of his ideas?
I think it wasn’t intended to imply a gender issue.. a hunting and fishing scenario would show the same results.
Don’t get any bites or few bites in this raped on a trout stream? Move on to another rapid...
Hyper attention to detail will spot a more likely place for deer to congregate than someone with average skills.
I’d have to challenge any “disorder” that claims there is a chemical imbalance in the fluids in your brain that they can only measure through flow charts , questions ,and answers . Sorry , but putting adolescents on speed should have never been a solution , in fact , I’m pretty sure no one should be taking “depression” medication either . These all seem to be states of mind and it’s been used against us to put folks on drugs . Don’t worry , I’d never spend my time trying to convince a medicated parent this ,, I just pray instead.. God speed to all #sobeit
I always viewed what is called ADHD as normal behavior in many kids that are just bored and big pharma saw a new disease they could create and drugs to supposedly solve it.
Read later.
It can managed without drugs. However, one has to be sensitive to the limits that are imposed by ADHD. No amount of beatings is going to increase a kid’s reserve for concentration, which is typically the mindset of many. They think it’s just a discipline problem and that the kid is just being rebellious, when he is simply low on the tank of being able to concentrate. At that point, get up from the table and do something short that is different then studying and then get back to work. SHorter and more frequent study sessions, because they do recharge quickly but they also drain quickly.
Think supercapacitor vs batteries on this point.
In ADHD, if a person is doing what they like to do, they can keep at it for hours. In hunting, that would be useful in persistent hunting, where you can walk down your prey 70 miles later from when you first sighted it.
Females, from my understanding, is just as common, but they typically show different symptoms than males. Think Phoebe from Friends.
Attention Deficit is a misnomer. They have a surfeit of attention, but need to learn how to focus that concentration. ADHD can be honed to provide heightened awareness, but also can be left untrained, leaving the mind scattered across too many subjects at once.
If I put 400lbs on a bench press and told you to lift it, but you couldn’t, would it be reasonable at this point to start yelling at you and bringing out my belt and other disciplinary measures with the promise of more if you keep failing to lift it?
It’s not a disciplinary measure, although strategies do exist to work with those who have ADHD, such as shorter and more frequent study sessions as well as tying physical activity into the study sessions. Yes, I concede that stressful homes can cause ADHD like symptoms, because stressed out children don’t sleep well at night.
However, true ADHD comes down to brain structure. Their areas of the brain that concern itself with memory and concentration tend to be smaller than average.
Thanks Jonty30. I'll read the rest of the article when I finish my ice cream and stream a couple episodes of some TV shows. And I have to call my doctor. Oh, and check stocks.
What some call ADHD, I call multitasking. ;^)
Females have ADHD but mask it more effectively. More likely to have inattention vs. hyperactivity.
The spinning woman trope from comedy shows, like Phoebe on Friends or Suzanne Sommers on Three’s company.
Talking randomly that is a lateral point that only they see from what other expected.
Women were always thought of as “scattered brain”.
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