Attentional blinks and ADHD?
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has discussed the phenomenon of attentional blinks and its relation to ADHD, explaining that people with ADHD may experience more attentional blinks than those without. Attentional blinks occur when one's focus on a specific target causes them to miss other information that appears shortly thereafter. This could be linked to the distractibility often associated with ADHD. For instance, finding Waldo in a crowded image feels rewarding and causes a brief pause during which another figure next to Waldo might be missed. This over-focus on particular stimuli may explain why individuals with ADHD might miss other simultaneous stimuli, which is supported by experimental data showing how challenging it is for people with ADHD to spot multiple targets in quick succession 1.
Moreover, suggests that these 'blinks' of attention are not only moments of missed visual information but also offer insights into the cognitive and neurochemical dynamics within the brain that could potentially be harnessed to improve focus and attention in people with ADHD 1.
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