In addition to door prizes, a review of past FOCUS+ presenters and a terrific spread of food *and* custom coffee drinks, the group listened to Dr. Oren Mason discuss ADHD and Executive Brain Function.
• There are a broad range of "executive functions" of the human brain, but eight of them are the ones most frequently and profoundly impacted by ADHD:
o Activation
o Timeliness
o Planning
o Attention
o Effort
o Emotional Control
o Memory and
o Action.
• When describing impairments to executive functions of the brain, there are six terms that are frequently use:
o Absent - When the executive function is simply missing; this does not occur with ADHD
o Diminished - Happens in people with ADHD, but not consistently, e.g. difficulty with Attention in some situations but not others.
o Crescendo - Where the effect on an executive function increases as the day goes on
o Decrescendo - Executive function actually improves with sustained use (rare)
o Erratic - Shows no logic or pattern; with ADHD a pattern can usually be identified
o Infuriating but Predictable? -- That's ADHD!
The following is a *very* abridged summary of Dr. Mason's remarks...he was able to get into far greater detail than we can relate here. Hopefully this will generate some questions and new thinking within our group, however.
Dr. Mason made the following analogy to describe the impact of altered executive function in people with ADHD in comparison to people without ADHD:
A "normal" person who needs to run errands has a brain that works like a Vespa scooter...he/she can easily stop, start again, regulate their speed and change directions at will.
A person with ADHD is trying to run those same errands on a rocket-sled; it's extremely fast from Point A to Point B, but it's very difficult to stop/turn/restart/speed up/slow down.
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