This week in ADHD Research I read June 7

Most Accurate ADHD Population Estimate

The most accurate to date meta analysis of ADHD has determined that our counts are up to 3.1% of the general population. The study can be found (update coming, lost the link)

Music Found to be Helpful for College Students with ADHD but not for Neurotypicals

A study in Psychiatry discovered that music helps ADHD folks study and focus, but there was no improvement with Neurotypicals. The Research summary can be read here.

The results were not robust and they did not do an experimental study, and ADHD and GPA were self-reported. It would be good to get an actual double-blind study going and a means to identify ADHD levels as well as neurotypicals.

From the ADHD Evidence Project:

Three types of ADHD as measured by brain structures affected and difference from Neurotypicals

Another study attempted to see if there were brain differences brtween the three types of ADHD in the DSM: Inattentive, Hyperactive, and Combined. They did find some interesting differences including in an area of the brain managing motivation and emotional regulation. The differences from Neurotypical in this group was largest. The second had differences in the sections of the brain controlling action control and response selection. The third had differences in the superior frontal gyrus, which controls attention. The brain scans themselves were able to differentiate by symptom, which is most interesting but it is important not to say these represent three types of ADHD. As the summary on the ADHD Evidence Project says:

It is important to be clear about what these findings do and do not imply. This study does not establish that these three subtypes are categorically distinct biological entities with sharp boundaries. They probably represent distinguishable regions along an underlying continuum of neurobiological variation. The neurochemical associations reported are exploratory and spatial in nature; they describe correspondences between brain deviation maps and neurotransmitter receptor density maps derived from separate imaging studies, and do not directly establish that any particular neurotransmitter system is altered in each subtype, nor do they currently inform treatment decisions.