The working-memory impairments experienced by a person with ADHD. Which brain areas appear to be involved?
Impairments in working memory have to be addressed because they could affect individuals with ADHD to an extent where the latter would have trouble engaging in social or academic activities and generating adequate cognitive responses. The majority of difficulties that might arise from executive functioning deficits and impaired working memory might negatively affect a person’s problem-solving skills and moral reasoning (Jensen et al., 2018). Both children and adults with ADHD could maintain a strong inclination toward working memory impairments in spatial and verbal spheres.
The first important argument for a thorough discussion on how ADHD could affect brain functioning and working memory impairments is the existence of prominent factors that could create a link between the disorder and the brain. A recent study in brain imaging showed that several brain regions are implicated in the notion of working memory impairment when it comes to people with ADHD, such as temporal, frontal, and parietal cortices (Duan et al., 2021). In order to improve working memory performance and reduce the impact on working memory, many care providers utilize methylphenidate.
Manipulations with working memory also involve the prefrontal cortex rather often. The importance of secondary brain regions for individuals with ADHD cannot be underestimated either because the parietal lobe could significantly influence visual-spatial processing and verbal rehearsal (Jensen et al., 2018). Brain functioning in individuals with ADHD depends on the prefrontal cortex because the latter modifies neural activity across posterior cortical regions as well. To conclude, the impact of ADHD on brain functioning has to be studied further, as each of the brain regions affected by the disorder could be vital for a person’s everyday functioning, too.
How might background music impact the working memory capacity
I do not usually listen to music when I study because, personally, I feel like additional sounds tend to distract me and avert me from remembering all important pieces of information. My attitude toward the lack of connection between listening to music and studying effectively is also supported by de la Mora Velasco and Hirumi (2020), who claim that background music cannot be recommended as a supporting factor for one’s learning process.
In the case where a learner possesses the lowest capacity level, they are never going to benefit from background music. Even in people with higher capacity levels of working memory, researchers were not able to find any statistically significant results that would approve of one turning on background music to study more effectively (Ntourou et al., 2020). For the most part, it should be considered a personal preference and a possible chance to appeal to the given learner’s motivation.
Speaking of technologies or habits that help me off-load items from the working memory, I would like to mention my favorite approach of breaking down larger tasks into smaller assignments. Not only this approach decreases the perceived complexity of the tasks, but it also helps me manage time better and gain more motivation to move forward. Another valuable method of reducing the burden placed on the working memory capacity is to utilize the drawing-construction strategy and collect and reiterate information using the sketching technique (de la Mora Velasco & Hirumi, 2020). Even though it requires the person to have at least minimal experience in translating information into visual form, the quality of drawings is going to improve with time, and the methods of off-loading the working memory are going to become more effective.
Discussion of the ways to externalize items in working memory, and technologies or habits to help off-load items from the working memory
From the point of classical conditioning, the environment plays one of the most important roles in the process of one’s education due to the fact that nature is inferior to nurture. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to limit the discussion on human behavior by addressing certain patterns from the standpoints of nurture and nature. The complexity of human behavior cannot be replicated using only these two notions (Cohenour et al., 2018). It is much more likely that any behavioral scientist would gain more insight into a person’s interactions if they consider the environment in association with biological factors, paving the way for classical conditioning.
In the example with a mother who listens to jazz music, the simplest example of classical conditioning would be to play jazz music in front of her child (neutral stimulus) and wait for the latter to develop a preference toward this musical genre. As soon as the mother is going to display happiness while listening to jazz (unconditioned stimulus), the child is going to mimic that behavior (unconditioned response) by beginning to dance joyfully, repeating after their mother. The ultimate conditioned response for the child would be to start dancing and experience a good mood every time when jazz music plays, and they can hear it.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that classical conditioning is only suitable for the process of retraining one’s reflexes, so the mother should be careful with the stimulus that she developed via listening to jazz music. New environmental stimuli could challenge the child’s beliefs and cognitive responses, placing them in a state of misperception. With only a certain list of reflex behaviors, the current instance of classical conditioning may not be enough to help the child produce a decent response to the environment. According to Pelaez and Monlux (2017), in such cases, the mother would have to resort to operant conditioning at the end of the day.
References
Cohenour, J. M., Volkert, V. M., & Allen, K. D. (2018). An experimental demonstration of AAB renewal in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110(1), 63-73.
Duan, K., Jiang, W., Rootes-Murdy, K., Schoenmacker, G. H., Arias-Vasquez, A., Buitelaar, J. K.,… & Liu, J. (2021). Gray matter networks associated with attention and working memory deficit in ADHD across adolescence and adulthood. Translational Psychiatry, 11(1), 1-12.
Jensen, D. A., Høvik, M. F., Monsen, N. J. N., Eggen, T. H., Eichele, H., Adolfsdottir, S.,… & Sørensen, L. (2018). Keeping emotions in mind: The influence of working memory capacity on parent-reported symptoms of emotional lability in a sample of children with and without ADHD. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1846.
de la Mora Velasco, E., & Hirumi, A. (2020). The effects of background music on learning: a systematic review of literature to guide future research and practice. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 2817-2837.
Ntourou, K., DeFranco, E. O., Conture, E. G., Walden, T. A., & Mushtaq, N. (2020). A parent-report scale of behavioral inhibition: Validation and application to preschool-age children who do and do not stutter. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 63, 105748.
Pelaez, M., & Monlux, K. (2017). Operant conditioning methodologies to investigate infant learning. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 18(2), 212-241.