A new study suggests that traits common to people with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) — particularly distractibility and impulsivity — might be advantageous strengths handed down from our ancestors.

These traits may have conferred significant advantages to our ancestors, particularly in the context of foraging and survival strategies, the researchers suggest.

ADHD comes with a kaleidoscope of behaviors that include distractibility, restlessness, forgetfulness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. In the modern world, these traits may be seen by some as challenges, but the new study has found that ADHD-like traits may have encouraged early foragers in hunter-gatherer societies to quickly abandon areas with dwindling resources and move on to those offering more.

David Barack from the University of Pennsylvania, who was the lead author of the study, said the results offered a possible explanation for why traits like distractibility and impulsivity are common.

ADHD may not be just a modern phenomenon but an evolutionary advantage, the study suggests

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels

“If [these traits] were truly negative, then you would think that over evolutionary time, they would be selected against,” he was quoted saying by The Guardian. “Our findings are an initial data point suggestive of advantages in certain choice contexts.”

David and the team of researchers came up with an experiment in which they invited 457 adults to partake. The experiment included an online foraging game, where the mission was to harvest as many berries as possible in the span of eight minutes.

David Barack explained that they initially thought participants reporting higher ADHD-like symptoms would have a worse performance than their counterparts

But we didn’t start out thinking that way. We predicted that in a virtual foraging task, subjects with higher ADHD self-report symptoms would leave a depleting resource sooner than those with lower self-report symptoms. We hypothesized this would lead to worse performance. (3/7)

— David L Barack (@DLBarack) February 21, 2024

Humans (and many other animals) tend to overstay when harvesting reward from patches. (@ahmed @kilpatrick and others have hypothesized this has some adaptive benefits.) When examined from a pure reward-maximizing strategy, these foragers are sub-optimal. (5/7)

— David L Barack (@DLBarack) February 21, 2024

Once the results came in, researchers analyzed how participants dealt with the dilemma of sticking to one bush or choosing to venture out and find other bushes laden with berries. They believed this mimicked ancestral foraging behavior as well.

As part of the experiment, participants were also screened based on their ADHD-like traits. David stressed that the screening could not be considered as a diagnosis.

Of the total number of participants, 206 were deemed to have positive results of having ADHD-like traits. Moreover, the researchers also found that the ADHD-like traits were more of a boon than a bane.

Individuals who scored higher on the study’s ADHD scale tended to spend less time foraging in one single bush than those with lower scores on the ADHD scale. Moreover, they also showed higher tendencies of leaving one particular bush and sieving through a fresh one for berries; these participants were also the ones who finally scored higher points in the game.

Individuals who reported higher ADHD-like symptoms scored better in the online game

This surprising but intriguing finding provides an initial clue to the prevalence and persistence of ADHD in the human population, and suggests possible benefits of distractibility or impulsivity. Check out the publication in Proc B to get the low-down on the details! (7/7)

— David L Barack (@DLBarack) February 21, 2024

David noted that his study comes with limitations and that more research would need to be conducted. The team’s work was nevertheless praised for trying to understand a condition that is fairly common today.

“It is great to see experimental evidence from David Barack and colleagues that participants who score highly for ADHD are more likely to switch their foraging activities in ways that can indeed be characterized as impulsive,” said Michael J Reiss, a professor of science education at University College London.

“In our evolutionary past, such behavior may sometimes have been highly advantageous,” he said. “ADHD can be a serious problem, but it’s a problem in large measure because of today’s environments.”

Typical ADHD traits could be highly advantageous in certain situations

Image credits: Vojtech Okenka / Pexels

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