From Lab to Life: ADHD May Spur Creativity

From Lab to Life:  ADHD May Spur Creativity

By Shlomo Maital

Source: Depositphotos.com

New research from Constructor University, a private German university in Bremen, published in iScience, reveals: “Some of the attention patterns that make ADHD challenging may also help spark creativity by allowing the brain to explore more ideas and unexpected connections. Researchers think creative activities could potentially channel this “defocused attention” while helping strengthen the brain systems involved in focus and self-control.”   **

ADHD affects millions of people.   Roughly 5% to 7% of children globally meet the criteria for ADHD, with some recent pooled estimates reaching up to 8%.   Millions of youth are affected, but rates vary widely depending on regional screening, local awareness, and diagnostic practices.  An estimated 366 million adults worldwide (6.8%) experience clinically meaningful ADHD symptoms.  Only a small fraction (roughly 10% to 20%) of adults with ADHD receive a formal diagnosis and treatment.

“There’s a tendency to view attention-related conditions like ADHD purely through the lens of deficit: what is wrong, what is missing, or what needs to be fixed?” said co-author Dr. Khalil.

Although ADHD is commonly approached as a disorder defined by difficulties, Khalil said emerging research shows that attention and creativity rely on some of the same neural networks.

“Neurodivergent attention patterns, then, are not merely problems. They can open pathways to powerful creative thinking when directed appropriately,” she said.

The work, titled Attention Unleashed: creative therapy for thoughtful transformation, brings together findings from multiple research fields to show how the brain systems involved in attention also overlap with those involved in creativity.

The researchers highlight free-associative thought as one example of this connection. The ability to let ideas move in unexpected directions can contribute to creative insights, but similar patterns are also associated with distractibility, mind-wandering, and other behaviors frequently seen in ADHD.

High-tech entrepreneurs have always known, from the start, that ‘weirdos’ (normally, a pejorative term) can bring huge creativity – but are often marginalized as ‘nutcases’.  Creativity, in a sense, is itself a kind of neurodivergence, as it involves thinking differently – diverging from standard thought patterns.

Will we find a new goldmine of creativity among those with ADHD, many of whom are currently ignored or sidelined?

** Sarah Bou Sader Nehme, Emiliano Macaluso, Radwa Khalil. Attention unleashed: Creative therapy for thoughtful transformation. iScience, 2026; 29 (5): 115387 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115387