What are they? Are there papers on this?
There are some cool studies done where people with a without ADHD are tasked to forage berries. The people with ADHD do better and adhere to foraging patterns which existing theories suggest would be more optimal.
A lot of the studies like that indicate the individual with the condition might benefit more from ADHD than the group they’re in, but I’m not sure that studies have explored group benefits very much.
There’s an often cited paper in which nomadic men who carry a certain ADHD-related allele (DRD4-7R, a dopamine reception variant with ADHD traits and novelty seeking) tend to have better nutritional status. I can’t recall much about it or how high quality it is.
With your foraging example, it does make me think ADHD is a small group/individual optimisation. Prioritising high vigilance and individual productivity over social cohesion.
I speak with no authority. I don’t even know how such a theory could be tested.
What do you think nutritional stunting means?
It would make sense to me that evolutionary there would be different mental development paths depending on the requirements of their situation.
This is coming from my understanding that ADHD is more prevalent in stressful upbringings.
That would normally be called "learning". Also a pretty conventional idea.
With learning, though, you'd want to explain why something becomes immune to further learning at a certain point.
Or maybe it’s learnt like you say, I think both areas would be worthy of researching.
Like being physically weak is not an advantage in white collar jobs.
So there is still room for complete failure in life, and maybe its a lot of luck/environment that some ADHD people succeed naturally.