This reminds me of how Rob Pike mentioned his dislike for syntax coloring as extra cognitive load, which seems odd in regards to current IDEs filled with information and stimuli.
With LLMs now directly interfaced to IDEs, it is likely that any obstacle will trigger a need for immediate AI powered dopamine reward. I wonder how programmers brains are going to rewire in this regard, even for those not subject to ADHD, but I suspect their sense of focus will worsen even more.
In the coming years, I wouldn't be surprised if writing high level code will slowly turn from mainstream to an edge art requiring focus and commitment, like assembly programming has already become. The casual developer will probably be just giving directives to an AI code bot and be incredulous when told how people used to write code themselves, pondering for hours on a bug in a bare boring terminal. A possibility is that what is perceived ADHD today might become the norm with future humans.
IMO syntax coloring lessens the cognitive load. What is "high level code". You are telling a machine what to do and to do it as fast as possible. Can you still make money telling a machine what to do but not as fast, depends but most likely. We code to ultimately make money in one form or another. Whether you keep that money or put it towards altruistic causes is independent of the shared commonality.
We should organise a study of our own: does syntax highlighting help or hinder and does the answer change based on your level of ADHD traits.
Could be quite interesting!
After reading this I implemented a code theme based primarily around typographic variation like weight rather than color. It uses only two colors (black and deep purple) in two weights and one italic each. I have pretty severe adhd and it's hard to judge but after using it for a few months I think this is better for me. Previously I had been using solarized light for nearly a decade for probably similar reasons.
Nano emacs was created by the author of that paper and its default themes are based on it, if you want to try it without committing to hand-rolling a theme. Personally I found that one too "light" (typographically, not color) but I also have relatively poor vision and like a large and heavy font.