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Brain scans reveal opposite reward responses in ADHD and autism (www.psypost.org)
submitted 4 days ago* by to c/science@slrpnk.net
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Individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and those with autism spectrum disorder both experience atypical responses to rewards, but their brain activity patterns differ in opposite ways. A new analysis reveals that while the two conditions involve the same deeper brain structures, they feature distinct patterns of heightened or reduced activity that could help explain their differing symptoms. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Edit weird ableist use of "healthy" don't know what that is about...

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[–] 11 points 4 days ago (6 children)

A biological scan to determine if a person has adhd or autism would be fantastic. Currently the diagnoses are based on subjective questionings that are very open to interpretation and often vary widely by the individual who's administering the testing. I've heard horror stories of people having to fight to get a diagnosis even though it's obvious that they have the condition.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 hours ago

    counterpoint: why do we need an "objective" way to diagnose people? Wouldn't it be better to largely ditch mental diagnoses (at least for autism and adhd) in favour of directly providing treatment for the symptoms?

    Why should it matter what your brain looks like if you have symptoms that cause issues?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)

    I'd be worried about such a scan being (ab)used to do eugenics. The disabled/undesirables were one of the Nazis' targets

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  • [–] 13 points 4 days ago*

    I mean any diagnosis data can be abused for eugenics, and any “scan” can be made up to say whatever they want.

    The real solution is to rid ourselves of the fascists. Don’t blame the tool unless it’s only function is evil.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 days ago

    It also makes it more difficult to diagnose as you get older as many of the tests are affected by experiences, e.g. PTSD victims who are highly sensitive to immediate things like ADHD, or people with ASD who have learnt to respond to praise in a way that neurotypical people do.

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