Hypercuriosity: Rethinking ADHD as condition with benefits

A growing body of research is challenging the traditional deficit-focused view of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), exploring how traits like impulsivity might also drive deep curiosity.

In a recent Science News feature,the author Sujata Gupta tells the story of Anne-Laure Le Cunff — once a rebellious teenager, now a neuroscientist — who is advancing a novel theory: that for some people, ADHD may be characterised not just by distraction, but by "hypercuriosity."

Le Cunff’s own journey is at the center of this evolving conversation. While studying neuroscience, she would dive deep into research but struggle with basic tasks — a classic pattern of high engagement mixed with executive dysfunction. Diagnosed with ADHD while working as a postdoctoral fellow at King’s College London, Le Cunff initially kept her diagnosis private, fearing professional stigma.

“I started seeing … breadcrumbs pointing at a potential association between curiosity and ADHD,” she says.

Though many people with ADHD recognise their creativity, resilience, and unique thinking patterns, most clinical research focuses on reducing symptoms. That’s beginning to shift.

A 2023 study in BMJ Open asked 50 people with ADHD about their positive experiences. Many highlighted traits like creativity, energy, adaptability, and especially curiosity.

“What really struck us was … people talking about how navigating the challenges of ADHD had actually made them more empathetic, more accepting of others [and] better at handling adversity,” said clinical neuropsychologist Astri Lundervold of the University of Bergen.

Le Cunff found herself drawn to a 2020 paper in Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences suggesting that curiosity and impulsivity may share similar neural pathways. Columbia University neuroscientist Caroline Marvin theorised that for some people, curiosity might feel like an urgent need — a kind of mental impulsivity. Le Cunff coined this tendency “hypercuriosity,” and she suspects it’s more common in people with ADHD.

The implications are especially relevant for education. A hypercurious student might be disruptive in a traditional classroom — always out of their seat or talking through lessons. Suppressing that behaviour might help them “fit in,” but at what cost?

“What if dampening the child’s impulsivity also dampens curiosity?” Le Cunff asks.

Some researchers argue that ADHD traits might have been adaptive in our evolutionary past. In ancestral environments marked by danger and unpredictability, having a few risk-takers in the group could be advantageous.

“You don’t want everybody to be roaming everywhere all the time because people would die. But you do need some people to take more risks,” Le Cunff says.

Supporting this, a 2024 study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B used an online berry-foraging game to show that participants with ADHD tendencies — though riskier in strategy — collected more berries on average than others.

Today, though, our information-rich, sedentary environments create a mismatch. Cognitive scientist Francesco Poli compares it to food: “We didn’t evolve in an environment with so much sugar… Similarly, we didn’t evolve in an environment with so much information.”

Research also shows that curiosity activates reward centers in the brain much like food does. A 2020 study in Nature Human Behaviour found that participants were willing to risk electric shocks just to see a magic trick or eat a tasty snack — both forms of reward triggered activity in the brain’s striatum.

This craving for information can manifest in ADHD as seemingly erratic behaviour. But philosopher Asbjørn Steglich-Peterson and colleague Somogy Varga argue that many people with ADHD toggle between being “busybodies” and “hunters” — searching widely until they find a topic that captures them, then pursuing it deeply.

That reflects Le Cunff’s own academic path.

“I was following breadcrumbs across different fields until I found this intersection that I couldn’t stop thinking about,” she says.

Now, with a $220,000 grant from UK Research and Innovation, Le Cunff is studying how curiosity works in students with ADHD using interviews, eye-tracking, and brain activity monitoring. Her goal is to help educators support hypercurious learners.

“The problem is when there’s no space for exploration,” she says.

Still, researchers urge balance.

“There’s a certain tendency to describe ADHD as [a] superpower … It’s not a superpower,” Steglich-Peterson cautions.

Lundervold agrees: “We can’t just positive-[think] our way past those realities. The goal isn’t to romanticize ADHD. It’s to ensure that when we’re supporting people with this condition, we’re seeing the whole person, not just the problems.”

By Sabina Mammadli