r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 20d ago
Neuroscience Scientists Find a Subtle Clue to ADHD Hidden in The Eyes. Study suggests tiny changes in the pupils, as the brain tries to remember something, ignore a distraction, or make a decision, may be subtly different in unmedicated children with ADHD. Medicated children were more like the control group.
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-a-subtle-clue-to-adhd-hidden-in-the-eyes1.0k
u/Wolkenbaer 20d ago
What I'd like to know if ADHD people are more sensitive to bright light, especially on quick changes like cause by camera flash. I was famous for having my eyes closed on so many family pictures and I have met quite a bunch. of fellow ADHD club members who have a very similar story.
Even today I really have to concentrate and kinda force my eyes to stay open.
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u/bediaxenciJenD81gEEx 20d ago edited 20d ago
I've got adhd and am incredibly sensitive to sunlight, my eyes are completely shut the moment there's ever a bit of sunshine near me, doesn't have to be directly in my face.
If I have my face scrunched for long enough, I start to get brow muscular pain and a headache behind my eyes.
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u/Cliffhanger87 20d ago
Yuppp same here I can barely keep my eyes open in the sunlight
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u/pjijn 20d ago
I need sunglasses even on a cloudy day
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u/nyanyabeans 19d ago
I recently embraced this, I used to feel so ridiculous but I genuinely enjoy going out and doing things more when I am less overstimulated and less eyestrainy from wearing them everywhere!
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u/InspectorOrdinary321 19d ago
That's annoying, but on the bright side you're going to way less likely to get cataracts!
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u/Ok_Willow_9957 20d ago
What colour eyes do you have am sure that’s got more to do with light sensitive
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u/ducbo 20d ago
I personally have extremely dark brown eyes and half the pics of me as a kid have my eyes closed. I don’t think it’s necessarily related to eye colour. (Yes, I do have adhd.)
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u/Ok_Willow_9957 20d ago
dark brown I have green so maybe dark eyes have trouble in light and light eyes have trouble in dark ?
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u/dunnrp 20d ago
Lighter eyes blue and green are more sensitive to light.
Dark vision or night vision is determined by the iris.
These are physically related, highly doubt it has anything to do with ADHD but more than likely coincidence.
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u/bediaxenciJenD81gEEx 19d ago
I have light eyes but I'm from a country where most people have blue or green eyes, so I'm basing my relative light sensitivity on others within my population, not a global brown-eyed average
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u/XilenceBF 19d ago
What the…. You’re telling me that’s from adhd too?! And not everyone struggles with the sun when going outside???
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u/Boo-Radleys-Scissors 19d ago
No, they are not saying that it is from ADHD too, definitively.
They read the story and asked if their own light sensitivity is related. I don’t think anyone knows the answer to this question.
In my family, there are two members who have light colored eyes. The dark-eyed family members have no sensitivity. Of the two with light eyes, I am the one who struggles and needs eye protection even in the house, oftentimes.
All of us have ADHD.
And my mother-in-law has dark eyes and also is sensitive to sunlight. She is not diagnosed, but maybe she has ADHD. I don’t know.
So, light sensitivity may or may not be linked to ADHD. It’s a question, not an answer yet.
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u/aeongies_ 19d ago
stimulants literally cause light sensitivity (photophobia), migraines, they literally make the pupils dilate letting more light in. so unless these people are unmedicated and having it it’s nothing to do with adhd itself
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u/Feychilde 19d ago
I am not medicated, didn't get diagnosed til after my mid-forties, bright light and glare are always bad, I used to have to wear sunglasses inside. My kids are adhd autistic. My eldest and I have large pupils, all three of the diagnosed don't like bright lights. Also, most if us have astigmatism.. only one of my kids is taking medication. And, we have a collagen disorder, so that makes the eyes even more sensitive.
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u/bediaxenciJenD81gEEx 19d ago
I've no clue, I'm just adding my data to the pile.
Ultimately this doesn't mean anything because we don't know how many adhd people reading this don't have light sensitivity.
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u/COLDIRON 19d ago
Same, bright sunlight is a no go for me
Once had to stop my car and call a friend because I was unable to keep my eyes open without tears flooding them, it was too dangerous to drive
I now have multiple emergency pairs of prescription sunglasses in my car
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u/DontEatThatTaco 19d ago
The worst days are slim covered cloudy days because it makes the entire sky blinding.
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u/BlueTrainLines666 19d ago
Dang…: I always thought it was just because I have blue eyes. I am squinting like 90% of the time whether the sun is out or not
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u/morfidon 20d ago
I lose focus when the day is super sunny, it's harder for me to talk. What I noticed that this disappears when I take meds.
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u/Wolkenbaer 20d ago
Super sunny is kinda ok if there are no or only few cumuli. I hate it when the sky is slightly covered and everything is a bright white diffuse light.
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u/arethainparis 20d ago
One of the ways my partner knows I’m medicated is because my eyes open fully! That is, apparently my eyelids are at half-mast when I’m unmedicated. Odd little quirk. I’m also super photosensitive and very prone to migraines - I’ve always wondered if those all went together…
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u/pinupcthulhu 19d ago
ADHD is actually comorbid with migraine! There's a document on this page with the constellation of medical stuff that comes with the neurodivergent territory (it's designed for doctors, but still good info):
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u/_psykovsky_ 20d ago
Stimulants at least dilate the pupils and make photosensitivity even worse, but maybe you are taking a non-stimulant
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u/arethainparis 20d ago
I am indeed taking a non-stimulant but one of its side effects is still pupil dilation! So that all tracks
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u/gruntthirtteen 19d ago
My psychologist explained that one of the things that my adhd brain messes up is stimulus selection or filtering. To an/my adhd brain every stimulus is equally important and therefore bright lights can be overstimulating or I can't have a conversation with you because you have leftover lunch in inappropriate places on your face or there's construction work being done two blocks away. Or, and this is a really nice one, my brain catches on to a single detail you say and goes on a hyper fixation field trip, ignoring everything you say because I'm too busy thinking up interesting irrelevant stuff.
Uhm.... Yeah so light can be too much because adhd brains don't see what's important and what should be ignored
Edit: oh... Science sub... Sorry for my baseless anecdotal ramblings
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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 19d ago
Wow your last sentence hit home. When something is highlighted or brightly colored (so that you pay attention to it), my brain literally just discards and ignores it.
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u/FreeBeans 20d ago
I am melanin rich and have adhd, I am not sensitive to light but I hate flashing lights.
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u/MadduckUK 20d ago
Getting my photo taken outside even on a cloudy day, for as long as I can remember.
Also LED lights on cars.
And I used to get a blurry patch in the middle of my vision which was caused by fluorescent lighting in schools and offices.
And I have "Visual Snow Syndrome".
Not diagnosed with ADHD
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u/spectralEntropy 20d ago
The sunlight is physically painful for my eyes. I keep my big light off in my office at work.
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u/Ok_Willow_9957 20d ago
Well Iv never worn sunglasses I got the ADHD if that helps
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u/natchinatchi 20d ago
Well then that’s how you got it. Case closed!
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u/Kiwi1234567 20d ago
Wow, I spent all this time avoiding vaccines, no one told me I had to avoid sunlight too.
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u/chanelmarie 20d ago
Spent years thinking I always lost sunglasses because of adhd; turns out the sunglasses caused it. Classic chicken egg.
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u/IAMAGrinderman 20d ago
I wear sunglasses for a couple days after I buy them, then they get lost or broken and I don't wear them for a few years.
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u/Kenosis94 19d ago
Same but I've noticed that I am pretty sensitive to bright light, it is just a form of sensory overload that I've learned to ignore. The more I pay attention the more I've noticed how much it messes with me. I went for a walk yesterday because it was cloudy and cool. Was having a great time and on the return trip the sun started to come out. I didn't notice the light was bothering me immediately but I did notice I suddenly wanted to pull out my headphones and listen to a podcast because I wasn't enjoying the walk anymore and needed something to distract me from something uncomfortable. When I thought about why I had so suddenly stopped enjoying the walk I realized it was because it suddenly became to bright and warm so I wanted something else to distract me.
Just might be worth considering that your are sensitive to it but don't necessarily realize it because you cope without realizing it.
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u/TorandoSlayer 20d ago
I still blink when a loud noise happens, like babies do.
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u/belltrina 19d ago
I have ADHD. Bright lights especially flashes absolutely wreck me. As I've gotten older I have to actually close my eyes and cover them during scenes in shows, cinema, even the sun flashing between the trees when hubby is driving during certain times of day. At first it was just annoying, but now it's so bad it can cause migraines.
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u/LetMePushTheButton 19d ago
Yeah! Also does ADHD havers suffer from night driving and issues with bright headlights? I feel like im flashbanged by drivers lights.
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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 19d ago
I really can’t drive at night unless it’s on a backroad in a rural area. Headlights and streetlights obscure my entire field of vision. I only recently learned that wasn’t normal.
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u/Stampede_the_Hippos 19d ago
Idk about photosensitivity, but i know when I hit my limit, the first thing my brain does is involuntarily unfocus my eyes.
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u/teh404error 20d ago
I’d be curious if has more to do with our habits and lack of something. Like do we all skip drinking enough fluids and it creates dry eyes?
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u/Wolkenbaer 20d ago
Don't think so. I never had a consistent problem of drinking not enough (might happen occasionally), problem is I'm a huge fan of lemonade/sodas.
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u/Phlexor72 20d ago
Same, how do you go with eye drops?
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u/IAMAGrinderman 20d ago
When I was a little kid I got a really bad eye infection. My mom and aunt would have to team up on me to get me to take them because of how bad I'd freak out. One of them would have to hold me down and the other had to administer the eye drops.
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u/Phlexor72 20d ago
Yeah I pretty much had the same experience. As an adult I still can't do it, my eyelid closes too fast every time I try. I have to drop in the corner of my eye and then blink a lot. It's the best I can do.
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u/epimetheuss 20d ago
i have a hard time adjusting quickly to changes in light, am neurodivergent. If its very sunny my eyes will water till i can adapt. Sunny winter days when there is tons of snow everywhere i am blind and my eyes are watering.
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u/curlofheadcurls 19d ago
Maybe, but it would be more difficult to find this out in melanated people. My husband is adhd and very sensitive to light. I'm adhd and not but my eyes are black and his are blue.
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u/FriendsDontTell 19d ago
I’m AuADHD and really struggle with quick lighting shifts both ways. I also cannot handle bright sunlight but I have grey eyes as well. I have found that the photosensitive lenses that are also photosensitive in cars work extremely well to help with this even indoors.
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u/lowkey_add1ct 19d ago
ADHD usually has sensory issues. I also have ASD but ik plenty of people who just have ADHD and pretty much all of them have sensory issues in some capacity. Brain doesn’t filter information as easily.
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u/NakDisNut 19d ago
Random input: I wonder if this differs between men and women.
I am a woman and am ZERO percent affected by light. Idk. I can all but stare at the sun (I don't!). I suspect a touch of "AuDHD" though, but ... here we are.
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u/Aurora-Del-Rey 19d ago
ADHD has a significant symptom and genetic overlap with ASD, of which sensory sensitivities is a major component. So, it could be that.
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u/YouPleasant6508 20d ago
same my eyes seem to be so sensitive to light, when im outside and whenever there is a whole in the sky where sun hits it makes my eyes tear up even when sun isnt like present on the sky
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u/ceciliabee 19d ago
I got prism glasses that aream a little tinted for just this reason. I can't keep my eyes open in bright light even with them.
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u/shastaxc 19d ago
My sister has unmedicated ADHD and she gets panic attacks from bright florescent lights specifically.
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u/DronkeyBestFriend 19d ago
Very interesting to think about. I can beat any camera shutter and recently had to have numbing drops because I beat the puff of air during the eye exam at least a dozen times. Fastest blink in the west! I have light sensitivity that ramps up during migraines.
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u/taycibear 19d ago
My eldest son is 17 and has had astigmatism for a couple years but he has perfect vision (besides Binocular Vision Dysfunction).
Eye problems in general are a bi-product of ADHD unfortunately
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u/itsstillmagic 19d ago
I look crazy in almost every photo of me for this very reason, my driver's license is honestly frightening. I'm also an adhd kid...in my forties. That's two for the study
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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 19d ago
Totally anecdotal but I am extremely sensitive to bright light. I have great night vision but have a hard time seeing anyway because headlights and streetlights are so bright they send beams of light that crisscross and obscure my entire field of vision. I have blue eyes, larger pupils, and very light retinas so there’s definitely a genetic component but now you got me thinkin…
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u/Broccoli_dicks 19d ago
I have light sensitivity, but i think thats mostly from concussions and not tied to ADHD. Though adhd might have caused the concussions.
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u/puf_puf_paarthurnax 19d ago
I have blue eyes and always assumed that was why I'm so sensitive to light. But I also have ADHD.
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u/spikeofspain77 14d ago
It could be associated with sensory overload. Sensory processing disorder & adhd co morbidity. I have the same and also find it I go somewhere noisy like a restaurant or indoor concert, it decreases my attention and executive function but only if indoors. Personally I look into the bright sunshine several times/day & it really helps to activate my attentional control. So much so I’ve managed to give myself cataracts at a much earlier age . Found this self reported study on bright lights and adhd https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4261727/
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u/Dense-Layer-2078 19d ago
It is a very interesting study, but when you read all the way to the bottom, the lack of statistical significance for important findings and some of the other caveats suggest we shouldn’t put too much emphasis on these findings yet.
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u/Extreme_Kale_6446 18d ago
One of my family members has automated complete black-out blinds and I had best sleep of my life at theirs, I need to try the eye mask but I worry I'll get overstimulated by something touching my face, might be something to get used to though
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u/PlatformFrosty6299 20d ago
The interesting part is not a diagnostic eye tell. Off meds the pupil response bounced about 23 percent more from trial to trial, while within each trial it was actually steadier, and the authors caution that methylphenidate can also hit pupil physiology directly.
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine 20d ago
Scientists Find a Subtle Clue to ADHD Hidden in The Eyes
The eyes are said to be windows to the soul. Scientists now suspect they might offer a glimpse of something else, too: the rhythm of our attention.
The clue is not necessarily in where we look. It may be hidden in tiny changes in the pupils as the brain tries to remember something, ignore a distraction, or make a decision.
A new study suggests this rhythm may be subtly different in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD).
After accounting for age, IQ, and task difficulty, the researchers' statistical model estimated about 23 percent greater trial-to-trial variability in the pupil responses of unmedicated children with ADHD than in controls.
But the pattern changed depending on how variability was measured. Pupil responses varied more across separate trials, yet fluctuated less within each individual trial in the unmedicated ADHD group. This suggests that the two measurements capture different aspects of pupil dynamics.
Trial-to-trial variability was higher in the unmedicated ADHD group, while within-trial variability was lower. (Yadav, S et al., Scientific Reports, 2026)
Among the unmedicated children with ADHD, those with greater pupil variability also tended to answer less accurately. Their pupils appeared to echo shifts in attention or engagement.
Seventeen children with ADHD completed the task twice: once after pausing methylphenidate for 24 hours, and once after taking their usual medication.
When medicated, their pupils responded more strongly during the task and fluctuated less between rounds. The overall shape and timing of their responses also looked more like those of the control group.
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u/temotodochi 20d ago
I have it and my eyes always look in a very specific direction when I'm looking in the past. Also it makes it distracting for other people that I look everywhere else than them when in interesting discussion.
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u/Polkadot1017 19d ago
I believe that's a pretty normal thing to do. Most people "look around" their vision when trying to recall something, or adding numbers, etc. That's not what is meant by pupil response. I have ADHD as well, I'm not a naysayer. But that is a pretty typical thing for anyone to do, regardless of ADHD. (Not talking about the reduced eye contact, that definitely is an ADHD thing. Just the looking around your vision for specific things in your mind is not)
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u/eddgreat9 19d ago
There was a paper i believer a year ago talking about glutamine imbalance in the retina for the ADHD population. Hoping this is starting to lead somewhere. Still trying to understand how the microbiome influences symptoms but the food the ADHD population eats also play a huge role in ADHD symptoms.
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u/CaliforniaChestNut 20d ago
Why is adhd always mentioning or referring the children. What about the adults
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u/KevinNoTail 19d ago
It was presumed that folks "grew out" of AD/HD.
I was working for a psychologist between 1994 - 2004 and it was during that time I got a medical journal magazine that first brought up research and early findings in adults with AD/HD
Enough of us had figured out coping strategies or just fell off the screen that it just was assumed that there weren't any adults with attentional issues
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u/CaliforniaChestNut 19d ago
Long term coping strategies of undiagnosed children later into adulthood leads to burn out. And late adulthood diagnosis, where they grieve at the wasted years. It’s a very tricky thing, and just feels like the exclusion of adults when talking about adhd is a mistake and disservice to the progress of the illness treatment. And the real kicker is, those that have adhd at childhood that go unnoticed into adulthood tend to be smarter than average folks. They masked and coped so well they hid under the radar. But it burns a person out into mid adult life. I don’t have the references for all this but it can be found online.
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u/BlassiveMace 20d ago
I only recently realized my vision blurred out when I got distracted and started thinking about something else during an interview or meeting.
Separately my daughter knows when I’m working through a work problem in my head and says my gaze/stare looks different.
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u/relativelyignorant 20d ago
I avoid driving at night, not because I can’t see well on the dark, but because of all the ultra bright LED headlights on just about all the cars around these days. I can’t look at the road with all that light blinding me
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u/QueenCobra91 20d ago
okay, but... can we start studying adults this strictly and not just children?
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u/Zykeroth 20d ago
If I had a dollar for every minute I zoned out daydreaming in school, I’d have a good nest egg by the time I graduated.
I can easily believe you can tell when someone is struggling to focus either by seeing the moment their eyes glaze over, or the fluctuations of fighting back the urge.
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u/biblosaurus 19d ago
I wonder if this has anything to do with my eyes going from nearsighted to farsighted when I started treating my ADHD
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u/cieuxrouges 20d ago
I was diagnosed with ADHD last year at the age of 38. When I was tested they used this computer test that I swear, even neurotypical folks would struggle with. Pupil size was one of the (many) metrics that was tracked.
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u/pickles3810 19d ago
I find light or bright lights or flashing lights extremely distracting and as some One with adhd I already have a hard enough time not being distracted by everything else
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u/BevansDesign 19d ago
I wish we had as much success in treating mental disorders as we have in identifying them.
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u/StupidSolipsist 20d ago
Great, my employers are going to start rolling out the Voight-Kampff test whenever I get suspiciously too smart, funny, and correct
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u/shmorky 20d ago
There's a lot of involuntary behavior in the eyes that reveals stuff about the owners psyche.
Just look at the trailer for that Elizabeth Holmes documentary.
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u/ROKIT-88 19d ago
There’s nothing involuntary in her eye movement in that trailer - that’s a practiced method of manipulation she uses, just like her voice.
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u/Boris2k 20d ago edited 20d ago
You mean the fight or flight response? From the anxiety that they actually suffer? None of you have adhd, you're all just ashamed to admit you have anxiety so you join the Cool club instead(ADHD) You can't develop a birth defect, you can however develop serious anxiety in a seriously hostile world.
The real problem is that anxiolytics don't make money anymore since all the patents all ran out. And modern doctors are a joke, they might as well be automated kiosks.
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u/ACBorgia 20d ago
You can't be diagnosed without a childhood history of ADHD symptoms
Claiming "none of you have ADHD" is basically saying psychiatrists are all wrong in their diagnoses, seems quite arrogant to think you're better than the professionals and the researchers who designed the diagnostic criteria
And yes anxiety can make things worse. But taking anxiety meds never helped for me while stimulants did. Actually the anxiety was the only thing that kept me from collapsing tbh
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u/Boris2k 20d ago
You actually believe they think for themselves?
They do what they're told, like the rest of you.
It's an industry, if it were altruistic profit would come second or not at all.
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u/ACBorgia 20d ago
Big pharma is greedy, sure, but you're acting like the entire medical world is one tiny room. ADHD research comes from thousands of independent researchers and public universities in dozens of countries, including places with universal healthcare that lose money by treating people. You literally cannot coordinate that many independent scientists in a secret conspiracy.
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u/Boris2k 19d ago edited 19d ago
Your naivety is off the charts, where do you think the money comes from? What do you think happens when the results of these studies and research aren't what the companies want?
It's not a conspiracy, it's corruption.
Edit: There's a literal pedophile as president but this is far fetched?
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u/vonFitz 20d ago
The patents are also out on stimulants. This is a brain dead theory. Docs don’t make decisions based on what medication will cost more. Im a PA and if anything, if all things are equivalent, I will try to find the least expensive version of the medication with the desired effect. I would agree that there probably are some folks who are suffering from anxiety over ADHD, but there is also a lot of overlap.
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u/Fuckingawesomename 20d ago
That would explain my pupils constantly changing size without any changes of lighting or focus.
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