ADHD Drugs Also Help You Stay Focused
ADHD Drugs Also Help You Stay Focused, Methylphenidate helps people with the disorder focus by influencing dopamine release
Email Furukawa. one of the leaders of the work.
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan have identified how certain areas of the human
brain respond to
methylphenidate, a common drug for
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (
ADHD ). According to their findings, the drug helps people with the disorder maintain focus by influencing the availability of dopamine in the organ. This work,
published in the journal Neuropharmacology, may help to understand the precise mechanism of the drug and, ultimately, to develop
drugs .more
specific against the disease.
“Children with ADHD may find it difficult to engage in behavior that does not result in an immediate positive outcome”
People with ADHD are often prescribed this
stimulant medication called methylphenidate. However, scientists don’t fully understand how the drug works. Previous research suggests that those with the disorder have
different brain responses when anticipating and receiving rewards, compared to individuals without ADHD. Now, these scientists have proposed that in those with ADHD,
neurons in the brain release
less dopamine (a neurotransmitter involved in reward-motivated behavior) when a reward is expected, while
dopamine neurons are more activated when a reward is given.”In practice, what this means is that children, and even young adults with ADHD, may find it difficult to engage in behavior that does not result in an immediate positive outcome. For example, they may have difficulty concentrating on their homework. because it might not be rewarding at the time, even though it will lead to better grades in the long run. Instead, they are distracted by
external stimuli that are novel and interesting, like a classmate talking or traffic noises,” explains one of the leaders of the work,
Email Furukawa.
Elaboration of the work
The researchers set out to examine how the drug affects a region of the brain called the ventral striatum, which is a vital component of the reward system and where dopamine is predominantly released. To do this, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (
fMRI ) to measure brain activity in young adults with and without ADHD while playing
computer games that simulated a
Researchers scanned people in the ADHD group twice
in slot machines. The researchers scanned people in the ADHD group twice: once when they took methylphenidate and once when they took a placebo pill.
They found that when people with ADHD took the
placebo, neural activity in the ventral striatum was similar in response to both the reward and non-reward prediction signals. However, when they took methylphenidate, activity in the ventral striatum increased only in response to the reward signal, showing that they were now able to more easily discriminate between the two signals. They also explored how neuronal activity in the striatum correlated with
neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in decision-making that receives information from the outside world and communicates with many parts of the brain, including the striatum.
conclusion
When people with ADHD took a placebo instead of methylphenidate,
neural activity in the striatum correlated strongly with
activity in the prefrontal cortex at the exact moment the reward was delivered, and the participants received slot machine game money.
Therefore, the researchers believe that in people with ADHD, the striatum and prefrontal cortex communicate more actively, which could underline their
greater sensitivity to rewarding
external stimuli . . In participants who took methylphenidate, this correlation was low, as it was in people without ADHD.
