Newsletter
Attention and its Disorders2026-04-06
“While those of us with ADHD may struggle to focus on school, work, and other structured activities, that doesn’t mean we’re not smart. Far from it. In fact, those of us with ADHD are usually intensely curious, persistent, and lifelong learners.”
—Tracy Otsuka
Attention is one of the most important resources in our knowledge-based economy. For an individual, how it is focused and used can be the difference between a successful and a less successful life.
Many external and internal things compete for attention and can disrupt it. Some individuals have a tight switch between shifting attention from one object to the next, from one activity to another. Others have a more lax switch. A tight switch is advantageous to be able to lock in on tasks. A lax switch is advantageous in fast-changing environments, and is labelled as a disorder in individuals who cannot sit still and focus in mundane repetitive environments. And a lax switch can become tight when faced with a task that really resonates with and captivates an individual, thus being an important evolutionary filter. You see that all the time in professional athletes, first responders, ER doctors, entrepreneurs, fighter pilots, and other successful people.
Dopamine is the key neurotransmitter involved in attention. In some ways, it is the currency of life, as it can affect time perception, motivation to do things, and connectivity inside the brain and to external tasks. It may even affect active longevity.
We have developed panels of mRNA blood biomarkers for ADHD, for objective assessment and matching to medications and nutraceuticals that can improve attention. The data is in, looks very interesting, but we will await going through the peer-review publication process, as we do for all of our tests, before further commenting publicly on it.
In the meantime, the best natural ways to increase dopamine are proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep. And the fastest way to squander it is to scroll on a phone. Between a rapidly changing environment, junk food, lack of exercise, poor sleep, and the pervasive addictive use of phones, ADHD diagnoses have risen sharply. We need to be more thoughtful about if, when, and how to treat. Medications for ADHD can make any task seem more appealing, even unimportant ones, thus removing a triage filter that successful people have. MindX Sciences (https://mindxsciences.com/) can help with that, from our Life x Mind app that keeps track of your attention, along with other things that can affect it, to the upcoming addition of a panel of biomarkers for attention to our MindX One liquid biopsy.
Live. Happier. Longer.
Alexander B. Niculescu, MD, PhD
Founder +CEO| MindX Sciences