Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)affects between 3 and 7% of children in the United States, and in some the condition persists throughout their lives. In this paper Rice summarizes several of the key characteristics of ADHD in people and compares these patterns with behaviors seen in monkeys exposed experimentally to lead and PCBs.

• "an inability to organize behavior in time: that is, to plan and execute tasks in an efficient or sensible temporal sequence."
• a short attention span: "an inability to persist in the face of distracting or competing stimuli."
• deficiencies in the ability to adjust behavior to past experience: "a deficient ability to appropriately respond to the consequences of past behavior, even though ADHD is not characterized by reduced intelligence."

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