Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder, Fernando Díaz del Castillo, T560: Spring 2005
ADHD, its definition and symptoms
Attention and the Brain
Recognition Networks
Strategic Networks
Affective Networks
Learning with ADHD
So, What’s Good About Having ADHD?
References and Links

Recognition Networks

Recognition networks are located in the back of the brain and allow us to recognize patterns, such as voices, faces, letters, and abstract concepts (Rose & Meyer, 2002, p. 13). Parietal lobe dysfuncti). Shaywit and colleagues (1999, p. 186, 188) state that the posterior attention system, which is involved in selective attention, such as changing focus by disengaging from one focus to another, may be impaired in subjects with ADHD.

Subjects with ADHD are likely to have problems maintaining visual attention (Bower, 2003, p. 339), discriminating among several perceptual inputs, as well changing the focus of their attention from one to another. Swanson (1998, p. 451, 452) reports that visuospatial cancellation tests showed that patients with ADHD performed in ways that suggested dysfunction of the right parietal lobe, which “may provide a link between some clinical symptoms of inattention (those describing selective attention) and a specific neural network (the orienting network)” (Swanson et al., 1998, p. 452).