Living in a world that is constantly changing can be difficult for many individuals. This is especially true regarding the society and the world that we live in today. Many people can accept the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives in numerous ways, whether that is negatively or positively. However, some individuals may have experienced even worse problems when attempting to continue with their daily routines during the pandemic due to them being diagnosed with ADHD. It is clear that many individuals were impacted differently, and the reality is that this has been a struggle for a lot of people. There was and still is so much going on in the world which has required many people to adapt quickly into environments that they were not familiar with. To this day, doctors and scientists are still unraveling how COVID-19 affects our cognitive function after recovering from it, even for individuals who are not diagnosed with ADHD.
There are many ongoing studies on how our brains fully recover or don’t after being infected with the COVID-19 virus. As noted from Dr. Zabner on the Cedars-Sinai Blog website, “With COVID-19, there’s an activation of the immune system that persists for months, which can affect neural connections in the brain… The stress of navigating COVID-19 constantly being in ‘fight mode’- can affect brain function, too.” (Cedars Sinai Staff). This quote was well stated by the doctor, and it is important for people to recognize that despite one not being diagnosed with ADHD, the virus could potentially play a role in an individual's inability to focus or function cognitively.
Society as a whole is constantly adapting and changing due to many factors, such as technology or the environment. However, it is crucial to recognize that many individuals with ADHD even prior to the pandemic have been struggling with challenges such as cognitive performance, attentional modulation associated with neural responses, and even simply focusing on a task. These challenges were extensively covered and explained in a study known as “Top-down attention modulates auditory-evoked neural response in neurotypical, but not ADHD, young adults, published by Kwasa et al. To briefly sum up the study, the researchers noted both cognitive and behavioral performances between ADHD subjects, and neurotypical subjects. As mentioned in the research paper by Kwasa et al., they performed the experiment by testing the subjects’ ability to sustain attentional focus on a single target and by testing their ability to monitor the target while flexibly switching their attention to an unexpected or unpredictable interrupter that is coming from another direction when it did appear. The results were somewhat expected as the researchers stated, “Adults with ADHD have weaker volitional control of attention processes than their neurotypical counterparts'' (Kwasa et al.). The ability to utilize attention in order to modulate sensory responses, and performance essentially impacts everyone differently, whether they are diagnosed with ADHD or not. There are many cases where undiagnosed individuals may believe they don’t have ADHD or are unaware of it, but they actually end up having it. For this reason, I enjoyed the research article by Kwasa et al., as they emphasized how neural responses and modulation, or attention vary across many individuals.
Ultimately there is still a lot more to discover concerning how the human brain and body respond or recover to the lingering effects of the pandemic. There is no doubt that the pandemic has had some negative impacts on many people’s lives, but some individuals were challenged even more during this time. Many problems have arisen and will potentially continue to as we attempt to proceed with our daily lives and get back to “normal”. It is crucial to note from the PubMed Central website that “The pandemic is reported to have exacerbated difficulties for many young people with ADHD and their families and rates of ADHD have been reported to have increased during the pandemic compared with pre-pandemic rates. (Hollingdale et al.) With the pandemic having forced many people, from students to workers, to adapt abruptly, there are some factors that one should be aware of to properly overcome any challenges. This is even more prevalent for younger children with remote learning who do not have the normal experiences or knowledge that many individuals had growing up. This can potentially impose further challenges in the future for these children but also adults. With all this being said, it is imperative that people find the support and resources to cope with many of the challenges brought by the pandemic in order to improve one’s overall health.
Works Cited
Cedars-Sinai Staff. “How Covid-19 Compromises Brain Function.” Cedars Sinai, 2021, https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/covid-19-brain-fog.html.
Hollingdale, Jack, et al. “Impact of Covid-19 for People Living and Working with ADHD: A Brief Review of the Literature.” AIMS Public Health, AIMS Press, 23 Aug. 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8568596/.
Kwasa, Jasmine A., et al. “Top-down Attention Modulates Auditory-Evoked Neural Responses in Neurotypical, but Not ADHD, Young Adults.” 2021, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.11.430824.
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