Discoveries

March 04, 2024

Vitamin or Ritalin?

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Many modern humans have trouble paying attention, either in childhood or as adults.

Turns out, ancient humans did, too.

In fact, attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) actually proved useful for our ancestors and that’s why it passed through natural selection to exist to this day, a group of scientists has argued.

In their study, the researchers found that such traits may have given early hunter-gatherers a greater tendency to explore while foraging, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

They tested this theory through an online berry-picking game. Participants had to collect as many berries as possible within eight minutes by foraging bushes and deciding either to keep foraging the same bush or move on to another one – all for the maximal prize of $3.

The researchers did not diagnose the 457 participants but gave them a self-diagnosis test where respondents had to tell how often they would experience a situation commonly linked with ADHD. Nearly half of the participants screened positive.

ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is usually spotted in childhood and can last into adulthood. According to the study, 11 percent of children and 4 percent of adults have ADHD, which means they would be seen struggling to pay attention, fidgeting, or making impulsive decisions.

It’s this very impulsivity that may have prompted early hunter-gatherers to leave depleted bushes and look for more fruit elsewhere sooner than their neurotypical peers, New Scientist wrote. People identifying with ADHD traits in the research were quicker to move on to other bushes and yielded more berries on average.

Though a first step toward finding out where ADHD came from and its advantages for our ancestors, the study had a few limits. For one thing, it’s unlikely bushes were as plentiful as in the game, so scarcity would have been a bigger issue.

This story originally appeared in the March 04, 2024 newsletter, Location, Location.