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Stimulant medication was found not to affect the usual attention networks in the prefrontal cortex.

Stimulant medication altered functional connectivity in the arousal and reward centers of the brain.

Stimulants appeared to reverse the behavioral and brain effects of sleep deprivation.

Conversations around ADHD should include motivation and sleep as well as medication.

What we thought we knew about ADHD medicine

A recent study from Washington University in St. Louis that was published in the science journal Cell is changing what we thought we knew about how stimulant medications affect the brains and alter the behaviors of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Stimulants like Ritalin and Vyvanse block the reuptake of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, thus increasing their concentrations at the level of the synapse. That part isn’t in question. The question is what brain regions are affected by this activity. Since the prefrontal cortex contains our attention circuits, it makes intuitive sense that this would be the brain region where stimulants exert their........

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