Wow! You Have a Really Good Occipital Lobe!
Ten years ago if anyone used the comment above in a conversation I probably would have had some unpleasant thoughts about him or her. However, this was a comment from my ten-year-old daughter last week that she casually used in a conversation. I know, it sounds odd. Well, let me first introduce my daughter, the brains as we call her. She is ten years old, has ADHD, and Asperger’s. She has an IQ of 112. She is currently in fifth grade age wise and is studying seventh grade math and language. Anyway, we were baking a cake and she was trying a chemistry experiment to imitate the action of the rising agent in the cake by blowing up a balloon using yeast and relating to the chemical bonds involved. To make baking more interesting my daughter was explaining to me how she learned about the different parts if the brain, as well as explain which areas of the brains I have deficits in such as my parietal lobe – which she associated with my lack of screaming when I touched the hot pan. While she was talking my inattentive brain (with good occipital lobe functions) wandered on to think about the formation of the brains of children with ADHD. She continued to tell me how she is trying to train her frontal lobe and in particular the motor cortex. The way she put it was that having speech therapy for many years helped her think about her pragmatics and social skill. Why can’t she do the same to improve her sense of space and bodily movement? I will not go into Asperger’s and brain function here. I plan to go to graduate school to learn about that.
It is common knowledge that the main deficits in ADHD are inattention and excessive movement. Furthermore, it is known that the frontal lobe which is located in the front of the brain is the main player for reasoning, motor skills, cognition, and expressive language. To be exact the motor cortex at the back of the frontal lobe works as a receiving station to utilize the information received from the different brain parts and carry out body movements. For individuals with ADHD, these functions can be impaired. Up until recently the differences in brain formation that lead to such differences were unknown. However, with the major advances in technology these changes are becoming more apparent. In a study by Mostofsky and colleagues they found that in boys with ADHD the frontal lobes were on average 8.3% smaller in total cerebral volumes (Mostofsky &colleagues,2002) . These finding suggest that the decreased volume in white and grey matter in the frontal lobe can be a cause for the clinical deficits associated with the disorder.
On the contrary, The National Institute if Mental Health, NIMH states that brain scans of individuals with ADHD suggest that the brains actually develop normally. However, they just develop slowly; on average the brains of individuals with ADHD mature 3 years later than those of typical individuals (NIMH, 2012). Now these delays can explain many aspects of the life long process of ADHD. It can explain why many adults with ADHD can regulate their behaviors and impulses. Nevertheless, I wonder can these delays in brain maturity be attributed to the different brain formation? Do they explain the lack of white and grey matter in boys with ADHD? That I do not know. Furthermore, if ADHD in fact is attributes to maturity delays, why bother medicate these children? After all, these medications can change the way their brains evolve and grow.
Going back to my daughter’s debate of training her brain, it makes sense. If you can train a person with speech deficit to speak properly, why not train them to overcome ADHD. With that being said, ADHD is obviously far more involved that just training. I recently read this study about the brain imaging of individuals with ADHD. The results if the study were definitely intriguing. Giedd and colleagues in this study found that the differences found in the brains of children with ADHD are suggestive of different functioning mechanisms that could possible lead to diagnostic ability by the use of MRI scans and PET scans. This study shows that in the brain of an individual with ADHD there is more involvement in the frontal lobe, basal gangalia, corpus callosum, and the cerebellum. (Giedd & colleagues, 2001). Their findings confirm the fact that there are brain deficits and abnormalities in the ADHD brain. Such finding can be really helpful when diagnosing and treating ADHD in the future.
GIEDD, J. N., BLUMENTHAL, J., MOLLOY, E. and CASTELLANOS, F. X. (2001), Brain Imaging of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 931: 33–49. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05772.x
Wolosin, Sasha M., Marin E. Richardson, Joseph G. Hennessey, Martha B. Denckla, and Stewart H. Mostofsky. “Abnormal Cerebral Cortex Structure in Children with ADHD.” Human Brain Mapping 30.1 (2009): 175-84. Web.
“Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” NIMH RSS. N.p., 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
My daughter is 11 and has been involved in all-star cheerleading which has lead to several concussions, not a good thing at 11. But, because of this, I have had the opportunity to seek out the most innovative cognitive therapies available. Some of these therapies not only help concussions, but also help ADD/ADHD. Neuro feedback is a non-invasive process where brain waves are monitored in real time by a computer which can then use that information to produce changes in brain wave activities ( http://www.hudsonspinalhealth.com). Research has shown that people suffering neurological problems have abnormal brain waves in certain areas of the brain ( http://www.hudsonspinalhealth.com ). Case studies using QEEG ‘brain maps” show that people with ADD/ADHD have elevated delta brain waves, (www.hudsonspinalhealth.com ). How this therapy works is that the brain is rewarded per say, during a 30 minute session every time it stays on focus while watching/listening to a video. If the brain starts to lose focus, the video/audio will fade. The brain realizes this and will refocus itself back to the proper range (www.hudsonspinalhealth.com). There are no meds used, just realignment of the brain in the correct way so that the person can stay focused and on task. Otterbein College, among others is using neuro feedback to help athletes that have suffered concussions. One of the issues that arises from a concussion is the patient’s sudden inability to stay focused and on task. Neuro feedback “trains” the brain how to refocus again ( Dr. Jeffrey Hudson 10/27/2014). I wish you much luck finding the answers for your daughter’s ADHD.
References
Internet, http://www.hudsonspinalhealth.com
Dr. Jeffrey Hudson 10/27/2014
Your daughter sounds delightful. I suffered from ADHD as a kid for a long time before I was finally medicated — and it made a world of difference. Mostly, though, I liked how you pointed out what therapy did for your daughter.
My four year old had not walked or talked at 23 months. We took him to the doctor were he failed the MCHAT pretty seriously, and that was how we started his speech and physical therapy. The leaps and bounds he made were amazing. He started walking, showing upper body strength, and began speaking in full sentences. Like you said, they were training him to overcome his failing speech habits and weak upper body. He is still on the Autism Spectrum, but we’re looking at beginning training for his behavioral issues. I am interested in this in particular because any training techniques helpful for him may also be helpful in helping both me and my husband overcome our ADHD, which has become more pronounced as we’ve gotten older.
Thank you for sharing.
Alaa, it seems as though there are conflicting results from a few of the studies on brain development; one says the brain is lacking in cerebral volume and the other says it is delayed maturity. I appreciate how thorough you were in covering the recent research on the subject. I read the abstract for Giedd and colleagues 2001 and it mentioned a goal of the study to identify phenotypes. I was not sure what phenotypes were and I have found that they involve genetics, environmental factors, and other variations that make up the expression that is a phenotype. It is exciting that neuropsychology and genetics are teaming up for research into the disorder. I know of few ADHD cases but from my experience, medications need frequent adjustments and new combinations result in many trips to the doctor’s office and pharmacy. The medication of individuals with ADHD has always been controversial and if a therapy could be developed along the lines of training weaker or abnormal functions of the brain (as your daughter suggests) would be a much needed reprieve from the common pharmaceutical approach.