This online study surveyed 492 US adults: 99 comparison adults who were neither autistic nor ADHD, 122 ADHD-only, 130 autistic-only and 141 autistic + ADHD. Most neurodivergent adults reported a formal diagnosis.
Autistic and ADHD adults were more likely than others to report an intense interest. All three neurodivergent groups reported more hyper-focus than the comparison group. Against the authors' predictions, the ADHD-only group reported more hyper-focus than the autistic-only group in general, in hobbies and in screen time, but not at school. Across all groups, more frequent hyper-focus went along with more inattention. The authors see this as a shared, unusual way of regulating attention.
Hyper-focus in general was linked to more anxiety, depression, hypervigilance and negative repetitive thinking. One analysis found no overall link to quality of life. Another found it directly predicted poorer quality of life, while a second path, through positive engagement in hyper-focus, predicted better quality of life and partly offset this. Neurodivergent adults reported both more positive and more excessive hyper-focus than the comparison group. They also struggled more to find others who shared their interests.
The study measured people once, so it cannot show cause and effect. The authors could not fully check who belonged in which group. The sample was not representative. It had a disproportionately large number of non-Hispanic White people, very few people with intellectual disabilities, and appeared unusually well-educated. The authors suggest that efforts to help neurodivergent adults find like-minded peers could be highly valuable.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- Dwyer, 2024: likelihood of reporting an intense interest, autistic versus non-autistic adults, OR = 7.24, 95% CI = [4.02, 13.39], p < .0001.
- Dwyer, 2024: likelihood of reporting an intense interest, ADHD versus non-ADHD adults, OR = 4.36, 95% CI = [2.47, 7.87], p < .0001.
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus in each group compared with the comparison group, Cliff's delta ADHD-only .78 [.67, .85], autistic-only .63 [.51, .73], autistic + ADHD .86 [.78, .91].
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus and anxiety, b 0.51 [0.23, 0.78].
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus and depression, b 0.52 [0.21, 0.82].
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus and hypervigilance, b 0.44 [0.16, 0.72].
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus and negative repetitive thinking, b 0.67 [0.40, 0.94].
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus and quality of life, no overall effect, b -0.04 [-0.35, 0.28].
- Dwyer, 2024: direct path from dispositional hyper-focus to overall quality of life, beta = -0.23 [95% CI: -.35, -.11], p = .0002.
- Dwyer, 2024: path through positive engagement to overall quality of life, beta = 0.06 [95% CI: .02, .11], p = .004.
- Dwyer, 2024: dispositional hyper-focus frequency and inattention, b 0.57 [0.19, 0.95]. What the terms mean:
- OR (odds ratio) compares how likely something is in one group with another. Here, a value above 1 means autistic or ADHD adults were more likely to report an intense interest.
- Confidence interval is a range of values around a result that fit the data reasonably well. A narrow range means a more precise result; the bracketed ranges here play that role.
- P-value shows how unusual a result would be if there were really no effect, and it depends on the study's own assumptions being right.
- Cliff's delta shows how often people in one group score higher than people in another, Here, each neurodivergent group was compared with the comparison group.
- b is a standardized measure of how strongly two things move together after taking autism and ADHD group status into account. A minus sign shows the direction, not the size.
- beta is a standardized measure of how strongly one thing predicts another along a given path, here toward overall quality of life.
Source: Dwyer P, Williams Z, Lawson W, et al.. A trans-diagnostic investigation of attention, hyper-focus, and monotropism in autism, attention dysregulation hyperactivity development, and the general population. Neurodiversity (2024). doi:10.1177/27546330241237883