Monotropism and AuDHD: Understanding Attention Through a Different Lens

Dwyer et al. (2024) found that individuals with co-occurring ADHD and Autism scored highest on measures of monotropism — the tendency toward intense, focused attention on a narrow set of interests at any given time.

This creates the distinctive AuDHD pattern of "interest architecture": both stable special interests (autistic monotropism) and cycling hyperfixations (ADHD novelty-seeking) coexisting in the same person. The research suggests this isn't a conflict between conditions but a unique cognitive style that emerges from their interaction.

This finding directly informed the "Interest Architecture" subscale in iamaudhd's AuDHD axis.