Research Recap with Skye: Fidgeting
Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Watterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways.
In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called A Quantitative Analysis of Fidgeting in ADHD and Its Relation to Performance and Sustained Attention on a Cognitive Task. And so, yeah, this study is investigating the functional role of fidgeting in adults with ADHD and how that affects their performance when doing tasks. Let's get into it.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at https://HackingYourADHD.com/295
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William Curb: Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Watterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways. In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called A Quantitative Analysis of Fidgeting in ADHD and Its Relation to Performance and Sustained Attention on a Cognitive Task. And so, yeah, this study is investigating the functional role of fidgeting in adults with ADHD and how that affects their performance when doing tasks. Let's get into it.
Skye Waterson: Yeah, I'm really excited to get into this one. When we said we would talk about fidgeting and ADHD, I had no idea that there was so much cool stuff out there about it.
William Curb: So I did an episode on fidgeting a number of years ago, and I was looking through this paper and I was like, "This paper came out in 2024. That would've been great had I not done an episode about it two years earlier," because I would've loved to use this one.
Skye Waterson: And that's why I love having this focus on research, because there is so much good ADHD research coming out. I feel like it's the daily news cycle for me in terms of something that came out so recently. And I'm going to just say it upfront: this paper is going to make you feel better about yourself, just so you know.
William Curb: Yeah. With a lot of the papers we've been doing recently, I've been like, "Meh, I don't like this paper that much." This one I loved, and I loved the results. I hope that's not fogging my ability to read the paper. I'm like, "Oh, I love the results. I love this paper." But...
Skye Waterson: Okay, should we get into what they were looking for?
William Curb: Yeah. So they were looking for the role of fidgeting while performing these cognitive tests. And so for them, they used two tests. They did the Stroop test and, what was the other one? I have a... the Flanker. That's right. And so the Stroop test is this test where you're looking at a list of words, and it's the word "red," but it's colored blue, and you have to say the color, not what's written. It's much more difficult than it seems. I remember when I used to play a game called Brain Age on my little Nintendo DS, they had you do that to help determine your brain age, and I got very good at it by the end. I was like, "Oh, this is one of the reasons that cognitive tests are not good if you just practice them—you actually just get better at the test rather than improving yourself." But so yeah, that was one test that they did, and it was a great example because you didn't have to use your hands at all, so you could fidget away. And then the other test was the Flanker, where you have to choose and show which way an arrow is facing. So it would have two arrows going one way, your target arrow, and then two arrows going another way, and then you have to pick and show which way your target arrow is.
Skye Waterson: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So it was, again, all of these are kind of the "pat your head, rub your stomach" kind of tests where they want you to be really engaged and very much focusing on one thing and not focusing on another thing, so that all of the different layers of your brain are focused, essentially. It's hard to do this one without taking your full attention.
William Curb: And that's exactly it, yeah. Because when you have these tests, sometimes there are things that you're like, "Oh, I can just do this," you know, if I'm just pushing a button because I can just figure out the cadence or something. These ones you actually have to be kind of zeroed in.
Skye Waterson: If there's a way to zone out during it, we will find it. Uh, 36 males, between the ages of 18 and 50. So adults—this is very different. Can you tell me, because I was honestly... They were looking at people who had diagnosed ADHD, so they were confirming an ADHD diagnosis using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. So these were people who were definitely diagnosed with ADHD.
William Curb: Yes. Yeah, definitely diagnosed with ADHD, and then they had criteria so that they didn't have people who had autism or other psychiatric disorders. So it's like, this is specifically ADHD for this study.
Skye Waterson: Exactly, exactly. So what they found was really interesting. They found that fidgeting had a purpose—at least it appears to have some kind of purpose. And that, for me, was game-changing because it reframed everything that anyone had ever said about fidgeting.
William Curb: Yeah. For me, this has been an idea that I've been playing around with a lot in my mind, thinking about its relation to the default mode network and how we're not tuned into our task-positive network all the time. The fidgeting allows us to up our stimulation and then be like, "Oh, we're on it. We're engaged."
Skye Waterson: Exactly, yeah. Essentially, what they found was that when people were more focused or they were doing a harder task, they fidgeted more. So fidgeting wasn't something that was associated with doing worse on this test—it was actually associated with doing better. And to be clear, this is fidgeting your body. They did have a fidget ball, but it didn't make the test. This was about tapping your toes, putting your fingers on the desk, things like that. And they found that it was aiding focus.
William Curb: Yeah. And just to let people know, they did have a measurement device. It wasn't just someone watching to see if you're fidgeting. They had a measurement device—what was it called? The Acti... it doesn't really matter because I don't know exactly what it is, but it basically measures movement. They had one on people's left wrist and one on their right ankle, so that they could try and get both sides of the body. And so during the Flanker test, when they're clicking, that motion doesn't get activated on their right hand.
Skye Waterson: Exactly. Exactly. So they were really looking at the... And it was really cool that they found that the harder the test got, the more fidgeting people did, and more fidgeting was associated with getting more correct answers. So that was really cool because it meant that not only were people fidgeting to pay attention, but the fidgeting also seemed to be helping. It made me think of every single teacher who's ever told anybody to stop fidgeting.
William Curb: Yeah. And it's... yeah, exactly. It is something where your fidgeting is... They did have a line later suggesting that maybe this is reverse causation, where higher focus is causing the fidgeting, but they're like, that's possible, but all the indications from this study go the other way.
Skye Waterson: Yeah. And it also relates to—it reminded me of—the really good research we've seen on exercise and ADHD. We found that movement is associated with reduced ADHD symptoms, emotional regulation, and all of that kind of good stuff that we want. And so it makes sense that any kind of movement would have a potential effect as well. Again, like you said, that kind of research is going in the right direction.
William Curb: Yeah. And it also mimics some other research I've seen on doodling and how that can help memory retention, where... and it's because it's a lot of stuff where people are like, "No, that can't be the right thing, because fidgeting means you're doing something else." It's, "No, this is helping me maintain my focus and giving me a secondary stimulus that's associating the memory."
Skye Waterson: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And so what this meant, and they kind of mentioned it at the end, was just... I personally felt like this was a real sense of "believe people with ADHD when they tell you something is helping." That was kind of the paper for me. It was like all of these different years have gone by with people saying, "I really like fidgeting. I struggle when I don't fidget. Being told not to fidget is frustrating." And not just children, you know. I have a lot of clients who have to go to important meetings, and those meetings go very long, and they struggle because they're trying not to fidget, and that's just making it a lot harder. So to find that there's some research showing there might be a positive reason for tapping your toes, etc., it really just felt like a "believe people" moment.
William Curb: Yeah, it was funny while I was reading the paper, I was like, "Oh, I am very much aware that I am..."
Skye Waterson: I know. Me too.
William Curb: I'm reading this, and I was like, "Oh, I am 100% unconsciously fidgeting here." Often while I'm doing the podcast, I am very consciously fidgeting because I'm like, "I need to make sure that..." because I know my hands will do something. So I find very quiet fidgets, because if I pick up a pen, I'm like, "I don't want the clickies in the show, and neither do people listening."
Skye Waterson: [Laughter]
William Curb: I think that is a great point, too. Yeah, the fidgeting does help us. But we also have to be aware that if we're going to do it, maybe we should do things that are going to be non-destructive and quiet. I've definitely sat at a thing where I'm like, "Oh, I'm just slowly tearing this piece of paper apart," and I'm like, "Why did I do that?"
Skye Waterson: If there was something that needed to be untangled, my parents would automatically give it to me. They'd be like, "Here, it's finally something for you so you don't destroy it. You can actually take this one apart."
William Curb: Yeah. Now, to temper this study a little bit, there were a few things that, you know, could have been improved. They didn't have a...
Skye Waterson: Yeah. Yeah, that one was a big one.
William Curb: I guess we skipped this earlier, but their definition of fidgeting was defined as "non-goal-directed actions undertaken for stimulation, characterized by repetitive or patterned movements that can be categorized into either extrinsic or intrinsic." So extrinsic would be like the fidget ball that they didn't really use, and then the intrinsic is just, yeah, like tapping your fingers or your feet or something. And so it would be great to see results split between those two. But I was also thinking that they only had the two sensors, the one on the right and one on the left. And I felt like that could've been a little bit more robust. But all the code that they used for putting this together, they put out to have other researchers use, so they are very much saying, "This is a start. Let's get more information."
Skye Waterson: Yeah, which I love. That's one of my favorite things about research. I don't know about every area of research, but at least the ones we've been into, it's very much people saying, "Hey, could you copy me, please? Please copy me. It would be amazing. Do better than me."
William Curb: Yeah. Yeah, and so they very much were like, "Hey, we want people to be able to replicate this study. We're gonna give you every tool available that you can because we think looking at this optimal stimulation for people with ADHD, and how that helps them focus, is important."
Skye Waterson: And it is.