The Hunter-Gatherer ADHD Brain

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties sustaining attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. A recent theory suggests that ADHD may not be such a new trend, but instead something that has been around for thousands of years, and with good reason.

ADHD has a global prevalence of 5 to 7 percent. It is a trait that was preserved for millennia, suggesting a possible evolutionary advantage somewhere during human history. One hypothesis suggests that traits that call ADHD today may have conferred an advantage to individuals and communities in early hunter-gatherer societies.

People with ADHD tend to show more exploratory behaviors. They are more active, have a wider array of attention than non-ADHD people, and also have a delayed sleep cycle. Today, all of this is seen as a disadvantage. More exploratory behaviors are often linked to risk-taking, being more active means having difficulties being seated down for hours, having a wider score of attention means getting distracted more easily and having a delayed circadian rhythm comes with daytime sleepiness and coming late to work.

But what does that look like 50,000 years ago?

In hunter-gatherer societies, exploratory behaviors are essential to ensure the safety of a refuge, or to look for food. A higher degree of activity ensures that individuals taking up this task will get tired less easily too. Those who struggle to maintain attention on something for a long time may get distracted during meetings but also may spot with the side of the eye the movement of a predator or enemy, which gives them precious seconds to react. A delayed circadian rhythm means that some individuals in the tribe naturally stay awake late to protect the community from danger while everyone sleeps.

When we consider ADHD traits in this way, they confer an advantage on the community and, by extension, on the individual who is valued and protected in return.

But what evidence is backing this theory?

Genetic Evidence

One study analyzed the DNA of 20.000 patients with ADHD, 35,000 controls, and samples from prehistoric Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal remains dating up to 50,000 years ago.

They found that ADHD-associated alleles were on genes essential to development, supporting the idea that selective pressures may have selected this trait in early societies. These variants were present both in early Homo Sapiens, and in Neanderthal, and their frequency decreased steadily in populations since Paleolithic times — or the Stone Age.

In other words, when humans were still hunter-gatherers, ADHD was prevalent, but its frequency started to decrease with the advent of agriculture and sedentary lifestyles, up until today. But that is not all.

Another study on two tribes in Kenya studied the social standing and nourishment of individuals with a mutation of the gene D4R4 coding for a dopamine receptor. Mutations in this gene are often associated with ADHD. This is what they found: In the nomadic tribe, people with the mutation had a better social standing and nourishment. In the sedentary tribe, individuals with the same mutation were instead malnourished, distracted, and considered unreliable — qualifications that sound similar to ADHD symptoms.

Foraging Experiment

An experiment in 2024 studied the foraging abilities of people with and without ADHD. The task was simple: Pick as many berries as possible in a limited time frame. What they found was a consistent difference in behavior and results.

Participants with ADHD departed patches significantly sooner and collected more berries than non-ADHD participants, who instead spent more time trying to deplete bushes and showed less exploratory behaviors. The study went on to suggest that this proclivity to exploration in people with ADHD may have been an advantage in societies where foraging or hunting were the norm.

The Takeaway

We know from recent studies that exercise, exposure to sunlight, and natural settings are all beneficial to people with ADHD, and aid in the management of symptoms and positive affect. These modulatory activities that were embedded in a nomadic lifestyle, may have interacted with a genetically based ADHD neurotype to maximize exploration and minimize disadvantages.

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In a world where a sedentary lifestyle is the norm, and work happens seated at a desk for eight hours, this interaction has long disappeared, and ADHD traits become more visible, disruptive, and less easily manageable.

Today, many people with ADHD naturally turn towards professions where they can move — which is why many Olympic athletes may be diagnosed with ADHD — or entrepreneurship, which allows them to follow their own rhythm which is often not aligned with societal expectations.

Today, ADHD remains a neurodevelopmental disorder with potentially disastrous consequences on the quality of life of many individuals, but the hunter-gatherer hypothesis provides us with the insight that medication and adaptation to a 9-to-5 lifestyle may not be the only way of life, for people with ADHD, and truthfully, for everyone else.

You can learn more about ADHD and how to manage it in the ADHD User's Manual.