Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a dysfunction of the Reticular Activating
System (RAS), which is the center of consciousness that integrates
learning and memory. RAS typically supplies the right amount
of neural connectors that are needed for smooth information
processing and clear, non-stressful attention. It is when the
neural building materials are lacking that demand for further
connectivity cannot easily be fulfilled and interferes with
the efficient processing of information, leaving the afflicted
Attention Deficit Disorder individual frustrated.
A person
with ADD does not have enough neural "hardware"
and the supply cannot keep up with the demand for new neural
connectors within the Central Nervous System (CNS). As demands
for new learning, memory, and the management of information
processing cannot be satisfied, and the existing neural pathways
are being continually overworked and over stressed due to
the insufficient "connections," this causes gridlock
or shutdown, so that nothing gets processed thereafter. This,
most obviously, causes frustration, bewilderment, and behavioral
problems with an individual with Attention Deficit Disorder.
The Reticular Activating System
and its connections are at the center of consciousness, attention,
and learning.
It seems that the Reticular Activating
System is intimately involved in the neural mechanisms which
produce consciousness and focused attention, receiving impulses
from the spinal cord, relaying them to the Thalamus, then
to the Cortex, and back again in a feedback loop to the Hippocampus/Thalamus/Hypothalamus
and the participating neural structures in order for learning
and memory to occur. Without the continual excitation of cortical
neurons by reticular activation impulses, a person is unconscious
and cannot be aroused. When the stimulation is enough for
consciousness, but not for attentiveness, Attention Deficit
or Learning Disorders is the result. If too activated, a person
cannot relax or concentrate and is over-stimulated or hyperactive,
then that usually results in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder.
