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Promising technological advances have allowed us to actually see the brain in action thus bringing us closer to a true understanding of how it functions. In the same article by Dr. Dickson mentioned above, he tells us about three functional brain imaging techniques—MRI, Pet and Spect—used to take pictures of the metabolism of brain chemicals. Dr. Dickson says that these functional brain-imaging techniques have played a vital role in understanding the AD/HD brain.

One of the leading scientific discoveries was made by Dr. Alan Zametkin (1990) of the National Institute of Mental Health. Through the use of a special brain-imaging technique called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, he has been able to measure and document the glucose metabolic process in individuals. These tests show fairly conclusively that during tasks that require concentration, the brains of individuals with AD/HD have a markedly lower level of brain activity in these areas as compared with those without AD/HD.

There is no clear agreement on the exact process by which AD/HD symptoms are produced in the brain. However, researchers surmise that because certain medications that affect the specific processes in the brain work so well in the reduction of AD/HD symptoms that these brain chemicals are also the ones involved in the creation of AD/HD symptoms. With the promise of these new brain-imaging techniques, we will better understand the great variations in human brains in the future.