The Connection Between ADHD and Memory Issues
Poor memory is one of the most common side effects of ADHD. Learn more about why ADHD impacts memory and how you can rewire your brain to enhance memory.
ADHD disrupts neural pathways in the brain that are responsible for memory encoding and storage. This makes learning and processing information incredibly challenging for individuals that struggle with ADHD. By working on your neural architecture, you can enhance the flow of information from your environment to your brain, and significantly improve all symptoms of ADHD, including memory.
ADHD is a condition that affects your emotional regulation, as well as the way you pay attention and learn. Due to the impact that ADHD has on your brain, memory impairment is a very common side effect of ADHD, which makes it all the more frustrating and difficult to function in a learning or working environment.
In this article, we'll discuss what ADHD is, how it affects the brain, and why ADHD makes it so hard for people to encode and store memories.
We'll also discuss the best treatment option for ADHD and memory challenges stemming from the root-level neurological organization.
What Is ADHD?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic condition that affects your neurological wiring, making it difficult to pay attention, sit still and often creates impulsivity. This results in struggles with learning and comprehension and can make it very difficult for children and adults in learning or working environments.
According to The American Psychiatric Association, ADHD is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children, with an estimated 8.4% of children and 2.5% of adults presenting with ADHD.
Although the cause of ADHD is yet to be determined, we do have some insights into what's happening in the brain.
In people with ADHD, brain development is slower, meaning that neurological pathways in specific regions of the brain don't mature at the appropriate rate. This delay in growth and development affects the brain's executive functions.
One of the most significant areas that ADHD seems to impact is the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This area is crucial for attention, motor control, emotional regulation, learning, memory, and organization.
The delay in neurological wiring also impacts the autonomic nervous system, creating what is known as "sympathetic dominance." In sympathetic dominance, your nervous system stays stuck in fight or flight mode -- your survival response.
While the survival response is vital for keeping you safe in the presence of danger, when it's overactive, it can become very detrimental to growth in development. Put simply, when your survival response is active, all your energy resources are tied up in activities that will keep you alive. Meanwhile, processes like growth, development, and digestion take a back-burner because when faced with a threat, your nervous system would rather you stay alive than waste energy creating an optimally functioning brain.
Exactly why sympathetic mode gets activated with ADHD is not clear, but it likely has to do with miswiring in the brain that sends signals to the body that you are not safe.
How Memory Works
While memory and recollection is an incredibly complex process, for our purposes, we can break it down into three phases; encoding, storage, and retrieval.
#1 Encoding
During the encoding process, you use your senses to take in information from your environment. This can be information from any one of your senses, including:
● Acoustic encoding (taking in sounds)
● Visual encoding (taking in information visually)
● Semantic encoding (taking in new knowledge or
understanding)
● Tactile encoding (taking in information on how something feels)
#2 Storage
During the storage process, the encoded information is retained within your memory system. This includes both long-term and short-term memory. Most of your encoded information is first stored in your short-term memory, and then if deemed necessary, sent to your long-term memory.
While short-term memory only lasts about 15 to 30 seconds, with a very limited storage capacity, long-term memory can be stored indefinitely, with an immense capacity for information.
In your brain, connections and synapses are created for each bit of new information stored, literally changing the brain's architecture. The hippocampus is the initial storage "unit" of the brain, but long-term memories can find their way into several different brain structures over time, depending on the nature of the information.
This process relies heavily on what is known as your brain's neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the ability to make new connections, shifting the architecture of your brain as you learn new information.
Research also shows that there is a bidirectional relationship between your prefrontal cortex and hippocampus when it comes to memory processing -- making these two brain areas essential for memory development.
#3 Retrieval
Once information is encoded into your memory systems (either short-term or long-term), it's up to you to recall it; this is the retrieval process. If you do not rehearse or repeat this information, it will either fade from short-term memory or lay dormant in your long-term memory.
Memory and ADHD
The neurological and behavioral impact of ADHD can make it particularly challenging for people to process and retrieve memories.
Research shows that these issues likely start during the first phase of memory development -- the encoding process. During the encoding process, your brain relies heavily on your ability to take in information from your environment. If you aren't able to pay attention to the information in front of you, it makes it much harder for your senses to carry this information to your brain for processing.
Furthermore, as mentioned, your prefrontal cortex (PFC) is vital for executive functions such as learning, organization, and memory. This is also one of the key brain areas that are affected by ADHD. Miswiring or poor development of this brain area directly impacts its relationship with your hippocampus, making it a challenge to store and retrieve memories.
And finally, the sympathetic activation associated with ADHD further muddies the water when it comes to memory processes. In sympathetic survival mode, areas of your brain involved in learning and comprehension are dialed down, while areas involved in your fight or flight response become active. In this headspace, you aren't able to use your senses to take in information unless it's meant for your survival.
In other words, your ability to make neurological connections to create new memories is hampered, reducing your brain's neuroplasticity.
As a result, someone with ADHD will find it much more difficult to learn and retain information, which is why memory tends to be a challenge in these individuals.
Neurological Calm
The first phase of our process involves what is known as vagal regulation. Vagal regulation involves working with the largest nerve in your body, the vagus nerve.
One of the core issues with ADHD is the overactivation of your sympathetic nervous system -- keeping you in survival mode and unable to form new connections in your brain. When your vagus nerve is activated, it helps to pull you out of sympathetic activation into a calmer state known as parasympathetic mode.
In parasympathetic mode, your energy resources return to rest, digest, growth, and development. You feel more relaxed, calm, and safe. This is the optimal state for learning because it allows you to take in new information from your environment. Similarly, it is the optimal state for encoding new information to be stored in your memory.
Your prefrontal lobe is much more active in parasympathetic mode, which impacts all of your executive functions.
To assist in shifting your nervous system, we use tools like the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), which was developed as a way to enhance vagal tone. This listening system activates parasympathetic mode, gently shifting your nervous system into a place of calm and safety.
Neurological Organization
Once your nervous system has settled down, you can move into neurological organization. For people with ADHD, this is where the real magic happens.
Neurological organization is the process of rewiring your neural connections for more optimal processing. As mentioned, people with ADHD have issues with brain development as this process becomes stunted, and their neurological architecture can become disorganized or underdeveloped.
This often leads to issues in sensory processing. In fact, many people with ADHD present with auditory processing disorder (APD) or sensory processing disorder (SPD). These conditions create challenges in taking sensory information from the environment, which is crucial for encoding.
By creating more neurological organization, we help people with ADHD enhance their focus, attention, and ability to process sensory information. This creates significant gains in the areas of learning and memory.
By leveraging your brain's neuroplasticity (which is now turned on due to the activation of parasympathetic mode), we can enhance neurological connections between areas involved in memory like the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. This allows for greater storage and retrieval of memories, along with other vital processes involved in learning.
To create neurological organization, we use tools that allow us to work with your brain on multiple levels. We gently guide your neural architecture back into balance using multi-sensory inputs from devices like the iLs Focus Unit. This allows for old, faulty connections to prune away while creating more efficient and organized connections.
Brain Harmony Success Stories
Reese's Brain Harmony Success Story
Jennifer, an FDN and health coach, was trying a variety of things to help her son with his ADHD. Reese, a smart young boy, was hyperactive, had trouble processing his emotions, and would frequently get into trouble. After starting the Safe and Sound Protocol, Jennifer saw immense improvements in Reese.
"Right after we did safe and sound, I noticed huge changes. I guess I didn't realize how big the sensory issue part was. I knew he had some sensory issues because he had been in OT, I just thought ADHD was more the thing, but after doing that and seeing the calmness that I have never seen him have, that was really eye-opening for me."
Takeaway
ADHD disrupts neural pathways in the brain that are responsible for memory encoding and storage. At the same time, people with ADHD tend to be stuck in sympathetic activation. These factors make it challenging for people with ADHD to learn and create new memories.
By working at a root-cause level, Brain Harmony re-establishes a sense of calm by pulling the nervous system out of fight or flight (sympathetic mode) and into rest and digest (parasympathetic mode). This increases the brain's neuroplasticity and allows for new, healthier neural connections to be made.
As a result, many people that struggle with ADHD find that the brain harmony protocol enhances not only their ability to pay attention, but also their ability to take in information from their environment and store it in their memory. This leads to advances in behavioral and learning processes, which is a key factor in ADHD.
If you or someone you love struggles with ADHD, reach out to Brain Harmony today for a Free Consultation to see if our 5-step approach is the right fit for you.