Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: from behavioral treatment to animal models

Abstract

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been described in literature for over 200 years (Lange et al., 2010), and the modern conceptualization continues to evolve (Sonuga-Barke et al., 2023). Contemporary views place ADHD within a neurodivergence framework. Behavioral symptoms can be viewed as variations along a continuum of everyday behavior, with fluctuating patterns of symptom remission and recurrence across the lifespan (Sibley et al., 2022; Van Meter et al., 2024). In addition, there is greater consideration of how symptoms can be viewed in context as strengths, and of environments that support behavioral variation, which are fruitful directions for research (Sonuga-Barke et al., 2023). In this chapter, we outline the clinical features of ADHD and highlight the condition's multifaceted nature, which has hindered understanding of its etiology and pathophysiology. We then discuss personalized medicine approaches used in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which remains relatively agnostic about pathophysiology and instead focuses on environmental variables that maintain the ADHD behavior of interest. Finally, we discuss the importance of modeling ADHD in animals and its translational significance to understanding ADHD-related behavior.