Every signal in NeuroSpicy traces back to a paper, a model, or a clinician’s observation. 32 sources across 10 themes. We cite them inline in the Learn articles too, because cycle data shouldn’t be hidden in journals.
The theoretical models we build on.
The unifying executive-function theory of ADHD that frames how we think about regulation capacity.
The reference handbook on adult ADHD assessment and treatment.
The cognitive-energetic model: ADHD as a state-regulation problem, not just attention.
Recasts ADHD primarily as energy dysregulation. Direct inspiration for the energy-tracking core of NeuroSpicy.
Critical re-evaluation of the dominant dopamine model. Pushed us toward the broader energy-state framing.
Why ADHD brains are "consistently inconsistent", and what that pattern looks like.
The defining paper on within-person variability as a core ADHD signature. Backbone of the Regulation signal.
Extends Castellanos: variability shows up in cognition itself, not just behavior.
Mood as a core ADHD feature, not a comorbid afterthought.
Builds the case that emotion dysregulation belongs in the diagnostic core. Underpins the Mood Shield signal.
Quantifies the size of the emotion-dysregulation effect across studies.
Eighty studies confirm emotion processing is reliably harder across ADHD. Why we expect telling feelings apart to take practice.
Around one in five adults with ADHD struggle to put words to feelings at all. The starting point check-ins train against.
The affective science behind treating energy, mood, and emotion as three separate, trainable signals.
All feeling decomposes into valence and arousal. The theoretical basis for tracking mood and energy as two independent axes, not one scale.
The defining review on what separates emotion from mood: duration and cause. Behind the "three clocks" framing.
Emotional granularity (naming feelings finely) predicts better regulation. Why we push past good and bad.
Naming a feeling turns its volume down on its own. Why a ten-second check-in does real regulatory work.
How well you can read your own internal state, often impaired in ADHD.
Why we ask you to log in the moment, not retrospectively: real-time interoception is harder for ADHD brains.
Direct measurement of interoceptive accuracy in adult ADHD.
Practicing interoception (which is what tracking is) improves emotion regulation strategies downstream.
The methodology behind 10-second check-ins.
Validates the EMA approach: short, frequent self-reports surface patterns clinical visits miss.
Direct precedent for app-based ADHD symptom tracking over months, not days.
Why the boom-bust cycle hits ADHD brains hard, and what recovery actually requires.
Maps the specific shape of ADHD burnout in adult work life.
Foundational evidence that recovery is not just rest. Different recovery patterns have different effects.
Reframes pacing from passive ("rest more") to active ("modulate effort across days").
Meta-analysis of pacing interventions across chronic conditions.
Hyperfocus is a feature, not just a bug. This paper traces the cost when it tips into burnout.
Why ADHD energy patterns are inseparable from the sleep system.
Direct neural evidence that ADHD attention dips look like micro-sleep intrusions.
Frames ADHD partly as a chronobiology problem, supporting our peak-window / dip-window signals.
Sleep variability is itself a marker. Why we look at weekly patterns, not just daily averages.
ADHD is not only deficits. The strengths matter for the framing.
Why we celebrate, not just diagnose. The strengths-based framing comes from this line of work.
Behind the social features (sharing energy with friends) is research showing connection matters more, not less, for ADHD wellbeing.
Practical adult-ADHD strategy book that informed early product framing.
How we compute what we compute.
Cohen’s d underpins the SD-scaled effect-size approach we use in Energy Drift and Mood Drift.
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The Learn library translates these papers into the day-to-day decisions NeuroSpicy makes for you, like why a certain signal fires, what burnout actually looks like in your data, or how recovery rebuilds capacity.