A chaotic model of sustaining attention problem in attention deficit disorder

•Based on chaos intermittency a model for attention deficit disorder (ADD) is proposed.•This model reveals dopamine has important role in sustaining the attention.•Also the interaction between different neurotransmitters can play that role.•Different predictions about the possible reasons of ADD are suggested.•Those theories can be tested experimentally by clinicians and physiologists. The problem of keeping an attention level is one of the common symptoms of attention deficit disorder. Dopamine deficiency is introduced as one of the causes of this disorder. Based on some physiological facts about the attention control mechanism and chaos intermittency, a behavioral model is presented in this paper. This model represents the problem of undesired alternation of attention level, and can also suggest different valuable predictions about a possible cause of attention deficit disorder. The proposed model reveals that there is a possible interaction between different neurotransmitters which help the individual to adaptively inhibit the attention switching over time. The result of this study can be used to examine and develop a new practical and more appropriate treatment for the problem of sustaining attention.