ADHD & How Anyone Can Improve Their Focus | Huberman Lab Podcast #37
- Aisha Washington
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
In episode 37 of the Huberman Lab Podcast, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman examines ADHD alongside the broader biology of attention. His central theme is that focus is not a fixed trait: it emerges from interacting brain networks, neurochemicals, physical states, habits, and environmental demands.
The episode covers clinical treatments as well as behavioral and nutritional approaches, but Huberman repeatedly distinguishes education from diagnosis. Difficulty concentrating does not automatically indicate ADHD, and neither this discussion nor any list of symptoms can replace an assessment by a qualified healthcare professional.
ADHD Is More Than an Inability to Pay Attention
ADHD—previously commonly called ADD—has appeared in medical literature for more than a century. Huberman describes it as a condition with a meaningful genetic component, while emphasizing that it has no simple relationship to intelligence. Someone can have ADHD and still demonstrate exceptional analytical, emotional, creative, or spatial ability.
The characteristic difficulty is better understood as inconsistent control over attention. People with ADHD may struggle to engage with routine work yet become intensely absorbed in something interesting. This “hyperfocus” is not a contradiction. It suggests that the machinery for sustained attention exists but is difficult to direct voluntarily when a task offers little novelty, urgency, or reward.
Impulse control is another part of the picture. Huberman separates the ability to select a target from the ability to suppress competing perceptions and actions. A person may know exactly what deserves attention but still find every notification, thought, sound, or opportunity to move unusually difficult to ignore.
Time, Organization, and Working Memory
ADHD can also affect the practical systems that surround attention. Huberman discusses distorted time perception, procrastination, chronic lateness, and the tendency to become productive only when consequences feel immediate. A distant deadline may provide too little motivational force; an imminent one can suddenly produce intense concentration.
Spatial organization may present a similar pattern. Some people rely on personalized piles of objects rather than stable categories and storage systems. Such arrangements can initially feel efficient because their creator remembers what each pile represents. As the number of piles grows, however, retrieval becomes unreliable. Huberman cautions that this habit is not unique to ADHD and should never be treated as diagnostic by itself.
Working memory is another frequent challenge. This does not mean that long-term memory is generally poor. A person may remember past events or future commitments clearly while having trouble holding a spoken phone number, a short instruction, or several pieces of task-relevant information in mind. Together, inconsistent attention, impulsivity, weak short-term information maintenance, and organizational friction can make ordinary activities disproportionately demanding.
Dopamine Helps Determine What Earns Attention
Huberman places dopamine at the center of his explanation of focus. Rather than describing it merely as a “pleasure chemical,” he presents it as a neuromodulator involved in motivation, selection, and the prioritization of particular neural circuits. When dopamine supports a goal, sensory attention can narrow around the information most relevant to that goal.
This framework helps explain why an engaging subject can produce hyperfocus while an uninteresting assignment feels almost impossible to begin. Curiosity, novelty, and anticipated reward recruit motivational systems that make concentration easier.
Huberman also describes an interaction between the default mode network, which is active during internally oriented or non-task states, and networks involved in goal-directed behavior. These systems normally counterbalance one another. In ADHD, he says, their coordination appears atypical, with dopamine functioning imperfectly as the signal that helps the brain shift into the appropriate mode.
The episode presents reduced dopamine signaling as one influential hypothesis rather than a complete explanation of every ADHD case. Huberman connects this model to the observation that some people seek stimulation through sugar, caffeine, nicotine, or more dangerous substances. Such behavior may sometimes represent an attempt to regulate alertness and concentration, although that possibility does not make self-medication safe.
Prescription Stimulants: Clinical Value and Real Risks
Medications including methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, and mixed amphetamine salts such as Adderall can increase dopamine and norepinephrine signaling. Huberman explains that, at a properly selected dose, stimulants may help a person with ADHD become calmer and more capable of directing attention. In children, this improved state may create repeated opportunities to practice sitting, learning, and completing tasks that do not provide immediate interest.
He recounts the view of a pediatric neurologist who favors carefully managed, low-dose treatment when clinically appropriate. The reasoning is partly developmental: childhood offers substantial neuroplasticity, so assisting frontal circuits during this period might help a child learn durable patterns of self-regulation. Huberman presents this as an informed clinical perspective, not a universal rule.
Medication decisions remain individual. Stimulants and wakefulness-promoting drugs such as modafinil or armodafinil can have significant adverse effects, including cardiovascular strain, dependence, misuse, and sexual side effects. Modafinil also interacts with the orexin system involved in wakefulness and appetite, which helps explain its established relevance to narcolepsy.
The episode is especially critical of non-prescribed “smart drug” use. A medication that benefits a diagnosed patient under medical supervision is not automatically safe or useful for someone seeking longer study sessions. Correct dosing depends on age, health, symptoms, other medications, and clinical response.
Diet and Supplements Play Supporting Roles
Huberman reviews evidence suggesting that nutrition can influence ADHD symptoms without presenting diet as a cure. Elimination diets have produced striking improvements in some studies of children, particularly when foods associated with individual sensitivities were removed. He also acknowledges disputes about study design and the broader risks of excluding foods without good reason.
A more conservative principle is to minimize excessive simple sugar and avoid foods that reliably worsen an individual’s symptoms. Because dietary restriction can affect growth, nutrition, and allergy exposure, substantial changes—especially for children—belong under professional guidance.
Omega-3 fatty acids receive more favorable but still measured treatment. Huberman notes that studies of EPA and DHA have produced mixed results, with some finding modest gains in attention and others finding little effect. He characterizes omega-3s as modulators: they may support mood, cardiovascular health, and dopamine availability, but they do not remove the underlying disorder. Claims involving EPA, DHA, or phosphatidylserine dosages should therefore be discussed with a clinician rather than treated as a do-it-yourself protocol.
The episode also surveys compounds such as ginkgo biloba, Alpha-GPC, L-tyrosine, phenylethylamine, racetams, and Noopept. Evidence, legality, purity, and risk vary widely. “Over the counter” does not mean harmless; compounds affecting dopamine, acetylcholine, or blood vessels can cause unwanted effects and interact with medications.
Attentional Blinks and a 17-Minute Practice
One of the episode’s most practical ideas concerns attentional blinks—brief periods in which the brain fails to register information appearing near something it has just detected. Huberman suggests that people with ADHD may experience more of these gaps, perhaps because attention becomes excessively locked onto selected targets rather than distributed effectively.
He highlights research in which participants sat quietly for approximately 15 to 17 minutes and attended to internal bodily sensations. This interoceptive exercise was associated with fewer attentional blinks afterward. The practice is simple: remain still, close or soften the eyes, and observe sensations such as breathing, pressure, or temperature without trying to control them.
Huberman does not argue that interoceptive awareness diagnoses or cures ADHD. Instead, he presents this short exercise as attention training that may improve how the nervous system allocates perception. Open-monitoring practices and panoramic vision may serve a related purpose by widening awareness beyond the narrow “spotlight” used for concentrated visual work.
Movement Can Make Stillness Easier
Physical activity is another recurring theme. Huberman cites focus-training research in schoolchildren in which movement before a visual fixation task improved performance. The result fits everyday experience: recess is not merely a break from learning but can prepare the nervous system to learn.
Small movements may also help during a task. Foot tapping, knee bouncing, fidget tools, or other unobtrusive activity can channel motor drive without necessarily disrupting cognitive work. Huberman proposes that such movement may redirect activity from premotor circuits, allowing attention to stabilize elsewhere.
This does not mean that every distraction should be accommodated. The useful question is whether a movement supports accurate work or becomes another competing activity. A brief walk before a demanding session, followed by a clear visual target and reduced environmental clutter, offers a low-risk experiment for many people.
Smartphones Can Produce ADHD-Like Attention Problems
The episode closes by separating clinical ADHD from attention difficulties created or amplified by modern habits. Rapid switching among messages, apps, videos, and browser tabs repeatedly trains the mind to abandon one target for another. Over time, sustained work can feel uncomfortable even in someone who does not meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
Huberman cites observational research linking heavy smartphone use in adolescents with greater attention problems. Such findings do not prove that phones alone cause ADHD, but they support a practical warning: persistent context switching can degrade concentration and imitate aspects of the disorder.
Improving focus may therefore begin with environmental design. Removing the phone from reach, limiting unnecessary alerts, working on one screen, protecting sleep, and inserting movement between focused sessions all reduce the number of battles attention must fight. These measures cannot replace clinical care, but they can clarify which difficulties persist after avoidable distractions are removed.
A Layered Approach to Better Focus
Huberman’s overall model is not built around a single supplement, medication, or productivity trick. Attention depends on mediating systems such as dopamine and acetylcholine, while sleep, diet, exercise, stress, technology use, and learned behavior modify how well those systems operate.
For someone with significant, persistent impairment, professional evaluation is the appropriate starting point. For anyone seeking better concentration, the episode offers a practical hierarchy: protect sleep, reduce rapid context switching, move before demanding work, train attention deliberately, and treat pharmaceutical or supplemental interventions with appropriate caution. The goal is not endless tunnel vision, but the ability to place attention where it matters—and move it when circumstances change.
