What Can Genetic Models Tell Us About Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

RE: Dr Grover (855)

Dear Dr Grover, You may be right in saying that a dyscontrol in motor timing and inhibition must not necessarily imply dyscontrol in other domains, such as emotions and social behaviour. They are commonly considered distinct problems co-ocurring in one disorder.
However, this is not my view. In my view the brain is a systemic and non-linear organism and everything is linked to everything. Thus, an overactivation of the motor system (due to deficits in the brake system) can have wide implications. As Nauta once said: "a thought is nothing but a motor act which is not connected to a motor neuron". In this line a general over-activity of the output ("activation") system of the brain can lead to overreactions in the emotional domain (which we see in temper outbursts), and to disruptive behaviour in the social domain. This is my personal explanation for the social and emotional deficits observed in ADHD. You can doubt my believe and correlative studies between motor response inhibition and behavioural (emotional and social) features will reveal the relationship netween both. However, I do not agree with your inversion: while ADHD children are emotionally and socially disinhibited and this may be related to a general deficient inhibitory (motor) output control, this does by no means imply that all emotionally or socially dyscontrolled patients have underlying problems in motor inhibition. There are other reasons why subjects may be socially or emotionally disruptive: such as frustrations (unemployment), attention seeking (due to neglect from parents), child abuse, motivational problems, pain, whatever. In other words there are many reasons for emotional and social dyscontrol other than motor disinhibition. The underlying cause in ADHD does not generalize to all other social and emotional disorders.
In other words, your inversive syllogism does simply not work.

Thu Dec 10