Learn / Interoception
A working model
Quieting the radio
A way of thinking about signal, noise and attention. Not a complete model of ADHD. The step from quieter noise to louder bodily signal is labelled honestly as a hypothesis.
Quieting the radio · not a complete model of ADHD
Competing stations
Attention is not simply absent. Multiple competing signals may be difficult to prioritise: mental noise, competing thoughts, environmental distraction, internal distraction, sensory competition, task-switching, difficulty selecting one signal.
The interactive explainer on this page is a thinking tool. It is not a brain scan, not a diagnostic, and not a promise of what a medicine will do to you. Four states. Only the last of the middle two is a hypothesis.
A medication pharmacologically classified as a stimulant may subjectively produce greater calm when regulation improves. That apparent paradox is not a trick. It is what some people report, and it is compatible with improved signal discrimination — without requiring us to pretend we have mapped the whole pathway.
1 · Statement
One plausible possibility is that improved attentional discrimination gives some people more capacity to recognise internal signals that were already present. Current research supports interoceptive differences in ADHD and supports changes in attentional regulation with treatment. The complete pathway from stimulant treatment to improved interoceptive awareness has not been established.
2 · Classification
Hypothesis. Mechanistically plausible. Not demonstrated as a causal pathway.
3 · Papers
4 · Claim limitation
Do not treat this as a finding. It is a research question.
Last reviewed
1 September 2026
Sources used on this page
- Cortese S, Adamo N, Del Giovane C, et al. (2018). Comparative efficacy and tolerability of medications for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, adolescents, and adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
- Kutscheidt K, Dresler T, Hudak J, et al. (2019). Interoceptive awareness in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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