i have a friend with ADD (or ADHD, i'm not sure which) and he reports that he doesn't have an auditory loop.
This friend also gets very easily disturbed by relatively quiet sounds.
He also has trouble keeping things in working memory. In fact, he says that sometimes he is saying to himself, "I am rembering X, I am remembering X, I am remembering.." and then suddenly can't remember what X is.
My hypothesis is that:
- he does in fact have an auditory loop (I'm guessing that an auditory loop is basic enough that every member of the species has one) but that it's weaker than for most people.
- one cause of ADD is this sort of weak auditory loop
- the weak auditory loop makes one more prone to having one's attention involuntary drawn to auditory interruptions
- the weak auditory loop takes away a key component that people ordinarily use to remember things for short periods of time
- it's possible that the weakness is not just in the auditory modality, but is a generic attentional problem