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ADHD also evolutionary advantages, so there is unlikely to be a single gene that encodes for it.
by genxy 1mo ago
ADHD also evolutionary advantages, so there is unlikely to be a single gene that encodes for it.
- Quarrel 1mo agoWhat are they? Are there papers on this?
- steve_adams_86 1mo agoThere are only papers which suggest this could be true, none that conclusively prove it. That I’m aware of. There are some cool studies done where people with a without ADHD are tasked to forage berries. The people with ADHD do better and adhere to foraging patterns which existing theories suggest would be more optimal. A lot of the studies like that indicate the individual with the condition might benefit more from ADHD than the group they’re in, but I’m not sure that studies have explored group benefits very much. There’s an often cited paper in which nomadic men who carry a certain ADHD-related allele (DRD4-7R, a dopamine reception variant with ADHD traits and novelty seeking) tend to have better nutritional status. I can’t recall much about it or how high quality it is.
- Weryj 1mo agoI’ve always thought, it’s not absurd to think there different development routes which the brain takes depending on the environment it develops in. With your foraging example, it does make me think ADHD is a small group/individual optimisation. Prioritising high vigilance and individual productivity over social cohesion. I speak with no authority. I don’t even know how such a theory could be tested.
- thaumasiotes 1mo ago> I’ve always thought, it’s not absurd to think there different development routes which the brain takes depending on the environment it develops in. What do you think nutritional stunting means? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunted_growth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunted_growth
- Weryj 1mo agoI don’t mean from a nutritional standpoint, but a behavioural perspective. Smaller groups would have an higher percentage of responsibility per individual to be vigilant and proactive. It would make sense to me that evolutionary there would be different mental development paths depending on the requirements of their situation. This is coming from my understanding that ADHD is more prevalent in stressful upbringings.
- psd1 1mo agoIf adhd is heritable, then the stressful upbringing could be symptomatic of the parent's condition instead of causal.
- Weryj 1mo agoI agree, stress during pregnancy could also be a signal shared with the developing brain.
- thaumasiotes 1mo ago> I don’t mean from a nutritional standpoint, but a behavioural perspective. That would normally be called "learning". Also a pretty conventional idea. With learning, though, you'd want to explain why something becomes immune to further learning at a certain point.
- Weryj 29d agoNot necessarily. ADHD is at the neurotransmitter level or density of receptors. Which could be an epigenetic condition from prenatal environment. Or maybe it’s learnt like you say, I think both areas would be worthy of researching.
- idnexjwnfodnn 1mo agoI don't know about papers but I had a doctor tell me they are overrepresented among snipers in the military. ADD could be an advantage to hunting.
- bmacho 1mo agoOr ADD just sucks there less than in other areas. Like being physically weak is not an advantage in white collar jobs.
- erlich 1mo agoChatGPT's take was that 10 ADHD people/animals would go exploring and if one produced a new source of food then it would be advantageous for the group, but the other 9 could fail and be completely useless. A bit like venture capital funds haha. So there is still room for complete failure in life, and maybe its a lot of luck/environment that some ADHD people succeed naturally.
- wao0uuno 1mo agoA psychiatrist told me that people with ADHD perform better under extreme pressure and chaos. No idea if that's true. Personally I don't even think of ADHD as a deficiency. It's just a trait that is not compatible with modern society and workplace.
- hirvi74 1mo agoThere might be a correlation, but I doubt causation. I would argue people with ADHD, like myself, tend to end up in situations where extreme pressure and chaos is more common. Thus, we have more exposure than the average person. I imagine it can be a trainable trait in many people.
- tccole 1mo agoYeah, I think this is the key point. I am better at handling chaos because I grew up around chaos (my mom has adhd and so do I) so I am much better at handling things falling apart.
- animal531 1mo agoA common meme you'll see on ADHD in online posts are about how people with it are perfectly calm during emergencies, but then when any inconsequential thing happens such as e.g. breaking a shoelace and they'll just unravel and/or take forever to deal with it.
- wredcoll 1mo agoEvo-psych is impossible to falsify.
- thatguy89 1mo agoI wish everyone would get this!
- bmacho 1mo agoPractically all statement outside of mathematics is a soft statement. IMO "Humans do this because [made up scenarios how it helped them survive]" is trash in its own rights, and not because it is not falsifiable. Not useful, not insightful, not anything.
- akoboldfrying 1mo ago1. How is it advantageous? 2. Assuming it really is: Why would this make it unlikely to be encoded on a single gene? As a layman, the only condition I'm aware of with this "downside but also upside" quality is sickle cell anaemia (downside is anaemia, upside is increased resistance to malaria), which is decided by a single nucleotide change on chromosome 11.
- thaumasiotes 1mo ago> As a layman, the only condition I'm aware of with this "downside but also upside" quality is sickle cell anaemia Essentially all traits that you might think of as "traits" and not "features of the species" have downsides and also upsides. Where there's any significant imbalance, the genes for that trait will be purged from the gene pool (if the trait is basically all negatives) or sweep to become universal (if all positives).
- ndsipa_pomu 1mo agoBy seeking out novelty, someone could be a more effective forager or better able to spot predators/prey hiding. ADHD often comes with a high attention to detail, so there's lots of advantages that could come with that (e.g. that twig wasn't broken before, something has passed through here). Also, having different sleeping patterns can mean that the people with ADHD are likely better equipped to keep a fire burning overnight and possibly be alert for predators.
- hirvi74 1mo ago> ADHD often comes with a high attention to detail Per the DSM-5, one of the core symptoms of ADHD: "often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities
- ndsipa_pomu 1mo agoYes, it's both a lack of attention to details in "boring" tasks and an exceptional attention to details in "interesting" tasks.