#working memory

[roseofthenight4444]

[unsolicited-opinions]

Do you sometimes feel like you’re spending a ton of time and energy providing incredibly well argued and sourced explanations to people who are in no way shape or form interested in good faith discussions?

Not really, no.

I mean, such people do seem to find my blog often and their responses often let me improve my blocklist or provide great writing prompts, but I don't write with that audience in mind.

I write mostly because it helps me work out my own thoughts.

(Those of you who are neurodivergent may relate to some of this.)

When thoughts exist only in my mind, they can be vague, circular, or incomplete. Writing requires me to commit to specific words in a linear sequence, which forces me to make implicit ideas explicit and organize fuzzy notions into coherent statements. I can't write "that thing about the situation" and expect to be understood, right? If I'm writing, I'm forced to name the thing and define the situation - and that sharpens up a lot of sloppy thinking.

My working memory kind of sucks (AuDHD), and writing lets me offload thoughts into what I'm writing...which frees up mental space/cycles for examining those thoughts, in context, without leaving things out.

Written words become objects you can observe rather than processes you're caught inside. Writing gives me a little distance and perspective I'm not otherwise able to access/generate. Y'know how meditation enthusiasts say that meditating lets them observe their own thoughts dispassionately? That's what writing does for me. It lets me evaluate my own thinking more objectively, which helps me spot contradictions, gaps, or assumptions.

Speaking and internal thought move quickly, often skipping steps. Writing is slower, and forces me through the intermediate steps of reasoning. This helps reveal where my reasoning breaks down or where I'm making leaps without support.

When I'm writing, though, the audience I imagine reading is made of people like these.

I've only posted a few, but I get messages and Asks like this regularly.

I got this one just yesterday:

So it turns out that the readers I imagine writing for...actually exist.

And really, that shouldn't be surprising.

It would be easy to believe from the behavior on Tumblr that most of the world is made of hateful people who differ mostly in which rationalizations they use as poor replacement for thinking...but I don't think that's reality.

I've been telling my kids since they were very young that about 30% of every population is just awful.

That means ~30% of Americans, ~30% of Ukrainians, ~30% of Presbyterians, 30% of high-masking autistics, 30% of one-legged, left-handed bisexual redheads.

~30% of every population can't be moved by facts or reason, and there's not a lot we can do about that.

You might think from online behaviors that the ratio has gone from ~30% to ~70% in recent years, but I don't think that's true.

I think the ratio has stayed at about 30%, but that the algorithm makes that proportion exponentially louder than they've ever been. That creates the illusion that they're a greater proportion than they are.

Here's the thing, Anon: You and I are not alone in wanting more supported, reasoned perspectives- It just feels that way.

There are a lot more of us than I think we realize, because the algorithm doesn't amplify support and reason - it amplifies emotion, confirmation bias, and echo chambers.

The business model of social media, focused as it is on engagement, isn't likely to be reformed any time soon.

So in the meanwhile, I want to produce more thoughtful content, support more thoughtful content, and share more thoughtful content...because I think a lot of us are starving for it.

And that doesn't feel like a waste of effort either.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

ADHD & Forgetfulness

Future ADHD

[lizardho]

I read one of your posts and I wanted to ask, would you know what happens in an ADHD evaluation? This is happening once again after fifteen years (I'm gonna be 18 in a few months now) since I was last diagnosed with ADHD and till now my dear mother (😀) refused to get me medication which was dearly necessary and insisted that it could all be fixed with meditation and just making a schedule.

Obviously it's been unsuccessful and it's fucked up my life in more ways than once but I wanted to know whether you had any advice?

ADHD evals vary from provider to provider but there are some things that tend to be consistent. For people doing a full diagnostic battery instead of just a brief interview, it typically involves three things: A diagnostic interview (where the provider asks you questions and you answer based on your life experiences).

Following the interview, some providers will integrate a "continuous performance test" which is a test that tracks how well you are able to perform mental tasks without getting distracted. This is often also accompanied by a "test of cognitive functioning," which typically includes things like IQ tests and tests that test your skills with working memory. IQ tests and tests of memory functioning are often longer than other psychological tests as they are intended to measure multiple factors that contribute to the constructs they measure. Each domain intended to be measured on a good IQ test will involve 2-4 smaller tests to more accurately measure the area of cognitive functioning meant to be measured.

(I know that IQ tests are highly controversial, and rightfully so, because in the U.S. they were originally used enforce racist immigration laws and perpetuate stereotypes against PoC. In actuality, the earliest IQ tests used weren't used by racist American psychologists they were utilized by the French government to sort children into the grade levels of the newly-minted French public education system. If used as tests that pull a broad academic skills an IQ test can usually measure someone's academic performance with some degree of accuracy. They do not reflect total intelligence or mental ability, but they can indicate areas of strength of weakness related to common academic skills.) (They can also be used for differential diagnoses in academic settings if used appropriately by someone who is trained and aware of the other factors that can impact scores on IQ tests, such as fatigue, effort, assessor bias, place of education, and level of education among others.)

Following the interview and use of continuous performance tests, memory assessments, and cognitive functioning, some providers will also use diagnostic screeners or personality inventories made specifically to identify other common mental health diagnoses. Some of the most common things we see misdiagnosed as ADHD are depression, anxiety disorders such as GAD or OCD, post-traumatic stress, and substance use disorders. Being able to rule these out with some degree of confidence is, in my own barely professional opinion, required as part of a good diagnostic assessment, as it can also highlight areas of strength that can be used to provide better, more specific, less medicine-focused feedback to patients.

To receive a written copy of the assessment report completed following your assessment you can ask the psychologist who assessed you directly. You can also ask for a "feedback session" with some psychologists, who will go over options for treatment and therapy as well as strengths and weaknesses noted during the evaluation process. If you got assessed through a governmental organization's request, such as for a state office of disability or a state office of corrections then typically you have to request a copy of the report from that organization as they are often legally considered to be the client of the evaluation.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 50, 2025

The role of social interaction in the formation and use of abstract concepts. Borghi, A. M., Mazzuca, C., & Tummolini, L. (2025). Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(7), 470–483.

The relationship between confidence and gaze-at-nothing oculomotor dynamics during decision-making. Cos, I., Senel, G., Maldonado, P. E., & Moreno-Bote, R. (2025). PLOS One, 20(7), e0310231.

Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains. Costa, K. M., Shimbo, A., Stalnaker, T., Raheja, N., Mirani, J., Sercander, C., & Schoenbaum, G. (2025). Science Advances, 11(28).

Dopamine D1–D2 signalling in hippocampus arbitrates approach and avoidance. Godino, A., Salery, M., Minier-Toribio, A. M., Patel, V., Fullard, J. F., Kondev, V., Parise, E. M., Martinez-Rivera, F. J., Morel, C., Roussos, P., Blitzer, R. D., & Nestler, E. J. (2025). Nature, 643(8071), 448–457.

Selective inhibition in CA3: A mechanism for stable pattern completion through heterosynaptic plasticity. Kim, G., & Kim, P. (2025). PLOS Computational Biology, 21(7), e1013267.

Layers of the monkey visual cortex are selectively modulated during electrical stimulation. Lee, S., Zhao, Z., Alekseichuk, I., Park, J., Shirinpour, S., Linn, G., Schroeder, C. E., Falchier, A. Y., & Opitz, A. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(7), e3003278.

Wakefulness can be distinguished from general anesthesia and sleep in flies using a massive library of univariate time series analyses. Leung, A., Mahmoud, A., Jeans, T., Fulcher, B. D., van Swinderen, B., & Tsuchiya, N. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(7), e3003217.

Attentional Precursors of Errors Predict Error-Related Brain Activity. Maier, M. E., & Steinhauser, M. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(28), e0757252025.

Anatomically resolved oscillatory bursts reveal dynamic motifs of thalamocortical activity during naturalistic stimulus viewing. Meyerolbersleben, L. S., Sirota, A., & Busse, L. (2025). Neuron, 113(13), 2196-2214.e6.

Striatal astrocytes modulate behavioral flexibility and whole-body metabolism in mice. Montalban, E., Ansoult, A., Herrera Moro Chao, D., Pham, C., Franco, C., Contini, A., Castel, J., Hassouna, R., Hardonk, M. H., Petitbon, A., Foppen, E., Gangarossa, G., Trifilieff, P., Li, D., Luquet, S., & Martin, C. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 5417.

Adaptive compression as a unifying framework for episodic and semantic memory. Nagy, D. G., Orbán, G., & Wu, C. M. (2025). Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(7), 484–498.

Self-supervised predictive learning accounts for cortical layer-specificity. Nejad, K. K., Anastasiades, P., Hertäg, L., & Costa, R. P. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 6178.

Humans adapt rationally to approximate estimates of uncertainty. Pulcu, E., & Browning, M. (2025). eLife, 14, e103734.

Neural signatures of emotional intent and inference align during social consensus. Reddan, M. C., Ong, D. C., Wager, T. D., Mattek, S., Kahhale, I., & Zaki, J. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 6156.

Striatum supports fast learning but not memory recall. Reinhold, K., Iadarola, M., Tang, S., Chang, A., Kuwamoto, W., Albanese, M. A., Sun, S., Hakim, R., Zimmer, J., Wang, W., & Sabatini, B. L. (2025). Nature, 643(8071), 458–467.

Reward expectation yields distinct effects on sensory processing and decision making in the human brain. Sengupta, A., & Sridharan, D. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(7), e3003234.

EEG Correlates of Active Removal from Working Memory. Shan, J., & Postle, B. R. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(28), e2414242025.

The human medial temporal lobe represents memory items in their ordinal position in both declarative and motor memory domains. Temudo, A., Dolfen, N., King, B. R., & Albouy, G. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(7), e3003267.

Context-dependent role of confidence in information-seeking. Van Marcke, H., & Desender, K. (2025). Cognition, 263, 106219.

Discrete spatiotemporal encoding of striatal dopamine transmission. Yee, A. G., Liao, Y., Muntean, B. S., & Ford, C. P. (2025). Science, 389(6756), 200–206.

[turns-out-its-adhd]

[executive-dysfunctioned]

ADHD is remembering your childhood best friend's dog's name but completely blanking on the name of the person you just met 30 seconds ago