Could a Simple Eye Photo Be the Next ADHD Diagnosis Tool? New Study Says Yes

If you’ve ever gone through the long, stressful, expensive ADHD diagnosis process (or tried to get your child assessed), you know how exhausting it can be. Waiting lists. Endless questionnaires. Interviews. Conflicting opinions. The overwhelming feeling of “Am I really ADHD, or do I just really suck at life?”

Now imagine if one day, all it took was a photo of your eye.

Sounds like sci-fi? Maybe. But it’s also real science—and it’s happening right now.

ADHD + Retina: What’s the Connection

The retina (the part of your eye that senses light) is made from the same tissue as your brain during early development. That means your eye isn’t just a camera. It’s more like a window to the brain. It gives researchers a peek into your central nervous system without needing a brain scan.

Now let’s bring dopamine ⁽²⁾ into the picture. It is the neurotransmitter that helps with:

• Attention
• Focus
• Motivation
• Mood
• Executive function

And as you probably know, dopamine is a big deal in ADHD. Many ADHD symptoms are linked to how our brains use (or don’t use) dopamine. What’s interesting is that dopamine also plays a big role in the retina. It helps regulate how retinal cells grow, function, and communicate.

So, if dopamine is off-balance in the brain, it might show up in the eye too.

New Insights into an Emerging ADHD Diagnosis Tool

Researchers in South Korea recently ran a study ⁽¹⁾ using retinal photographs (just regular eye scans) from 321 children with and 321 without ADHD. Then they trained machine learning models (AI) to look for patterns. Here’s what they found:

• The AI could tell who had ADHD with up to 96.9% accuracy
• Kids with ADHD tended to have denser, thicker blood vessels in the retina, and different optic disc shapes
• The model was especially good at spotting ADHD-related visual attention issues

All of this just from a simple photo of the back of the eye.

If confirmed through further research, this could become a powerful, non-invasive ADHD diagnosis tool, one that doesn’t rely on years of waiting and subjective assessments.

Linking Eye Scans and Executive Function in the ADHD Diagnosis Tool

The study didn’t stop at diagnosis. The AI was also trained to predict executive function differences based on how the retina looked.

It was especially good at identifying challenges with visual attention and sustained attention, which makes sense, because those are common ADHD traits.

Auditory attention was harder to detect from eye scans (understandably), but still, this opens up big possibilities for understanding ADHD on a more individual level.

A Step Forward—But This ADHD Diagnosis Tool Needs More Research

However, this method isn’t ready for practical use just yet.

One issue is that the researchers specifically excluded children with commonly co-occurring conditions like autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. They did run an exploratory test to see if this eye-based approach could tell ADHD apart from autism, and the results suggest it probably can’t. So, for now, this wouldn’t work as a comprehensive ADHD diagnosis tool on its own.

Another limitation is the sample size and population. All the children were from just two hospitals in South Korea. That means we don’t know yet if these findings apply more broadly. Future studies need to include people from different countries, age groups, and lived experiences.

But even with these limits, the potential is exciting. If this method becomes reliable, it could streamline the ADHD diagnosis process and help people get answers faster. Early diagnosis means early support, and that can change lives. For example, treating ADHD earlier reduces the risk of developing things like substance abuse, which we’re statistically more vulnerable to.

No More Waiting Years for Answers?

It’s amazing to think that something as simple as a photo of your eye could someday help spot ADHD, especially when so many of us have had to fight to be taken seriously, to get support, or even to be believed.

This new method is a huge step toward a future where getting answers is easier, faster, and less biased—something our community deeply deserves. And if this kind of research keeps growing, maybe one day, people like us won’t have to wait years to understand their brains. Maybe they’ll just need an eye scan.

Until then, keep advocating for yourself, keep asking questions, and remember: your struggles are valid, your brain isn’t broken, and science is finally starting to catch up to what we’ve known all along.

Sources:

(1) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-025-01547-9
(2) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine

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