HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1617192
ADHD and Autism in Neurocognitive Mismatch Theory: Distinct Neurodevelopmental Incompatibilities with the Market-Based System
Provisionally accepted
- 1Unaffiliated, Willmar, United States
- 2Independent Researcher, Willmar, United States
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ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) represent distinct neurodevelopmental conditions with unique profiles, yet they share susceptibility to environmental pressures that may exacerbate cognitive mismatches. This paper argues that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum traits are not fixed neurological disorders but neurodevelopmental variants destabilized by the sociobiological mismatch between evolved human cognition and the pressures of modern market-based civilization. Drawing on evolutionary biology, developmental neuroscience, social epidemiology, and political economy, the paper reframes these conditions as context-contingent outcomes: traits that are biologically conserved due to their adaptive value in ancestral environments but rendered dysfunctional under chronic stress, inequality, overstimulation, environmental toxicity, and cognitive suppression endemic to industrial societies. It synthesizes evidence across prenatal programming, intergenerational stress transmission, pharmaceutical ethics, and neuroplastic adaptation to propose an ecological model in which the environment, not the brain, is the primary source of pathology. This reframing calls for systemic transformation, not individual correction, and provides a foundation for more inclusive, developmentally respectful, and ecologically coherent mental health paradigms.
Keywords: ADHD, autism, neurodevelopment, neurodiversity, Market-based systems, neuroplasticity, neurocognitive mismatch Article Type Hypothesis and Theory Word Count
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kidwell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joseph Lewis Kidwell, Unaffiliated, Willmar, United States
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