If the primary diagnosis was changed from ADHD to specifically ADHD-Inattentive Presentation, a few details in the fictional futuristic conceptualization could be altered:
– The structural and functional abnormalities described may show a more posterior pattern focusing on parietal and temporal regions rather than including broader prefrontal deficits. Research has linked ADHD-I more strongly to posterior cortical thinning.
– Neurotransmitter targets of treatment may emphasize norepinephrine/noradrenergic systems preferentially over dopamine, as ADHD-I appears to involve more of an underarousal of the attentional networks.
– Functional neuroimaging may show relatively greater hypofrontality during cognitively demanding sustained attention tasks rather than multifaceted executive dysfunction tasks.
– The proposed cognitive profile may remove implicit processing weaknesses, instead describing a pattern centered around inattention, distractibility, disorganization and slowed processing more so than inflexibility.
– Symptom management may focus more on strengthening arousal, alertness, selective attention and filtering out distractions rather than impulsivity, hyperactivity or reward processing.
– Associated academic weaknesses may zero in preferentially on subject-verb agreement errors, misplacing details, careless mistakes rather than broader executive dysfunction in writing or math.
– Metacognition coaching may place extra emphasis on tools for sustaining focus, prioritizing workload, time management.
So in essence, the depiction of underlying neural correlates, behavioral expression, and ideal treatment targets may become a bit more posteriorly focused and geared towards strengthening arousal networks critical for attention in ADHD-I specifically.
[responsivevoice_button voice="US English Male"]