5 Surprising Truths About How Neurodivergent Brains Find Their 'Flow'
The Elusive State of 'Flow'
We've all experienced it, even if only for a moment: a mental superpower that lets the world melt away. Time distorts, self-consciousness vanishes, and we become completely one with the task at hand. This is the state of "flow," a feeling of deep immersion that is as powerful as it is frustratingly difficult to summon at will.
For neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), the path to flow is governed by a unique and surprising neuroscience. It isn't about trying harder or simply eliminating distractions. Instead, it's about understanding the specific ways their brains are wired for deep engagement. Knowing this, let’s explore five key insights from recent research that challenge common assumptions about focus and neurodiversity, revealing a new perspective on how to unlock this powerful cognitive state.
Achieving Flow Isn't About Forcing Focus—It's About Winning a Brain Network Battle
Inside your head, a constant battle for the control is underway. On one side, you have the Default Mode Network (DMN), your brain's resident storyteller and worrier. It’s the part of you that daydreams, relives memories, and frets about the future. It’s always trying to take over with an internal monologue. On the other side are the Task-Positive Networks (TPNs), your brain’s "doers." These networks light up when you're absorbed in a goal-oriented task, like solving a puzzle, playing an instrument, or coding.
These two networks are competitors; when one is active, the other goes quiet. You can't be lost in a complex project while your DMN is loudly replaying an awkward conversation or daydreaming about the success you’ll achieve by completing the task. Flow happens when the doer finally gets to be in command. The storyteller agrees to step back, the internal chatter fades, and the TPNs can take full command, immersing you completely in the present moment.
Neurodivergence Can Be a Flow State Superpower
While conditions like ADHD and autism are often framed by their challenges with focus, their distinct brain patterns can become a powerful asset for achieving flow. The key is understanding that not all flow is the same.
For individuals with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), flow is often a process of deepening. Their capacity for intense, stable focus allows them to achieve profound and sustained immersion in their areas of special interest. This isn't a fleeting state; it’s a consistent dive into complex systems and long-term passions, driven by a preference for depth, routine, and order.
For individuals with ADHD, flow often manifests as hyperfocus—a spontaneous and powerful pull towards tasks that are novel, highly stimulating, or personally rewarding. While sustained attention on less engaging activities can be a struggle, the ADHD brain can lock onto a captivating task with an intensity that screens out everything else. This is because of a neurochemical called dopamine. For individuals with ADHD there is an imbalance of dopamine levels or dopamine receptors in certain parts of the brain. The drawback is that a brain wired this way needs more immediate rewards and stimulating activities. A hyperfocus flow state releases a surge of dopamine which creates a locked in state where executive function is enhanced and tasks are completed quickly and efficiently. These cognitive profiles aren't deficits to overcome; they are different pathways to deep immersion.
To Reach Peak Creativity, You Must Master a Skill—Then Let Go
Creative flow is a delicate dance between control and surrender. The "expertise-plus-release" model proposes that true creative immersion requires two things: deep expertise in a subject and the ability to relinquish conscious control, allowing intuitive processes to take over.
This model maps perfectly onto our brain networks. Expertise is built through deliberate practice, strengthening the goal-oriented Task-Positive Networks (TPNs). But the "release," where breakthrough ideas emerge, is powered by the Default Mode Network (DMN). This is the "daydreaming" network's superpower. When you feed it the raw material of expertise built by the TPNs, it engages in a kind of productive daydreaming, forming novel connections between disparate ideas that the hyper-focused TPNs would never see. The DMN isn't an enemy to be silenced; it's a creative partner to be leveraged.
Deep Focus Involves Temporarily Turning Down Your Brain's CEO
The experience of losing your sense of self in an activity has a clear neurological characteristic: transient hypofrontality. Put simply, this means a temporary reduction in the activity of the prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain that acts like a CEO, handling self-monitoring, planning, and analytical thought. This may explain why some neurodivergent people experience “time blindness.”
This down-regulation is essential for flow because it silences our inner critic and reduces cognitive second-guessing, freeing up mental resources for the task itself. But here's where it gets fascinating for ADHD. Individuals with ADHD often exhibit baseline hypofrontality, meaning their prefrontal cortex is naturally less active in some contexts. What is often seen as a "problem" impacting executive function may, under the right conditions, become a "shortcut" to flow. For stimulating and engaging tasks, this baseline state can make it easier to enter the state of transient hypofrontality required for deep immersion.
This is the neurological "how": to win the brain network fight and achieve the "release" needed for creativity the brain's own CEO has to temporarily step out of the office.
The research suggests that true immersion isn't achieved by adding more control, but by temporarily reducing the brain's self-monitoring functions, allowing for a more seamless and spontaneous engagement with a task.
We Can Design Environments and Tools to Unlock Neurodivergent Flow
Understanding this neuroscience helps us create practical tools and strategies that help neurodivergent individuals harness their cognitive strengths. Research points to several promising innovations:
• Personalized Cognitive Training: Gamified apps and neurofeedback programs can provide real-time feedback on brain activity, empowering individuals to learn how to self-regulate the switch between their "daydreaming" and "doing" brain networks. Look for apps such as Finch, Forrest, Cognifit, Eidetic and Clockwise to name just a few. All can help keep the brain to keep going in the direction that’s desired.
• Specialized Task Environments: Sensory-friendly physical and virtual spaces with adjustable lighting, noise-cancelling technology, and ergonomic setups can minimise sensory overload and create a cocoon for deep focus. The environment matters and knowing what is needed and providing it is part of expressing the potential that neurodivergent individuals need.
• Technology-Assisted Tools: Imagine intelligent task management software that uses AI to suggest optimal schedules and break times based on your unique performance patterns. Wearable biofeedback devices can already track physiological signs of focus and offer guided exercises to achieve a state of relaxed concentration. Feedback rings, watches and headbands can help to educate about the state of the body and provide invaluable feedback for managing states. This can be invaluable for people who struggle to recognise the physical cues the body gives about mental states.
• Interest-Based Learning: Educational platforms tailored to the deep, passionate interests of neurodivergent individuals can make learning easier through creating a state of flow. This allows users to explore subjects they love at their own pace. In conjunction with interactive content this could transform education and training from a chore into an immersive experience. On demand learning with deep dives sections are effective along with releasing content/presentations in advance to stimulate pre-learning and interest.
Beyond 'Fixing' Focus
Understanding the science of flow in neurodivergent brains requires us to shift our perspective. It moves us away from a model of "fixing" focus and toward one of cultivating the unique cognitive strengths that are part of neurodiversity. By realising that the path to deep immersion is different for every brain, we can begin to design systems, tools, and environments that unlock the full creative and cognitive potential of every individual.
What could we achieve if we designed our schools and workplaces not to correct neurodivergent focus, but to cultivate the unique ways it flows?
References:
Hutson, P. and Hutson, J. (2024a) Enhancing flow states in neurodivergent individuals through Cognitive Network Integration, AccScience Publishing. Available at: https://accscience.com/journal/GHES/3/1/10.36922/ghes.4345 (Accessed: 01 October 2025).
team, N. editorial (2024) Hyperfocus and ADHD: Understanding the paradoxical superpower, NeuroLaunch.com. Available at: https://neurolaunch.com/hyper-focus-adhd/ (Accessed: 01 October 2025).