Attention research

This is one of the weeks where both basics and topics will focus on the same topic. Our topic this week is attention, one of the six categories of activities in the BrainHQ program.

The basics class will focus on the definition of attention, techniques for paying attention, attention in our brain and ways to improve attention. For topics people, we recommend that you go to the Basics lesson and brush up on the topic.

The topics class will look at some research on attention, and how our attention is being challenged in all sorts of ways. We will, however, conclude with some healthy tips to improve your focus. But continue to work with BrainHQ as well!

Microsoft tackles attention spans

(Attention Spans, 2015)

This lesson starts at the obvious. Is technology affecting our attention and focus? For this, we turn to technology giant to learn more about this.

Microsoft participated in a research project to see how technology was affecting the way that people interact with the world. In this case they were Canadians. They used 2,000 volunteers, giving them a survey and games to determine their attention capabilities. Based on their performance, they were divided into three equal sized groups – low, medium and high attention.

There were three categories of attention tests:

· Sustained attention (responding to patterns)

· Selective attention (spotting differences)

· Alternating (classifying numbers and letters)

Researchers then recorded their brain activity and behavior as they interacted with different types of media (laptop, phone, television) and in different environments. They sought to understand how attention varies by screen, task, content type and structure. Results were reported as ACE (Attention, Connectivity, Encoding) scores as well as number of attention bursts (moments where the attention activity in the brain breached the top quarter of brain activity for the task.

Their study found the top factors impacting attention:

· Media consumption

· Social media usage

· Technology adoption rate

· Multi-screening behavior

Sustained attention is the ability to remain focused on a single task. It varies among age (31% high sustained attention for 18 to 34 yr old versus 35% for 55 and older) and gender (33% of men had high sustained attention versus 31% of women in the study.

Long-term focus, it was found, erodes with increased digital consumption, social media usage and tech savviness.

However, there was a positive effect of social media in the brain. Although they generally have lower sustained attention overall, moderate to heavy social media users have more intermittent bursts of attention (high intensity for short duration) in the short-time. These bursts of attention allow heavier users of social media to process information and encode in the memory more efficiently.

Heavy social media users can pay more attention in an environment that is interactive and digital, but attention declines when the environment is passive (like watching TV).

Their overall conclusion was that a digital lifestyle does have a negative impact on prolonged focus. People in more digital lifestyles struggle to focus in environments needing prolonged focus.

One of the finding cited in the report. However, it has been disputed (the goldfish part).

Microsoft explains the different types of attention.

A narrowing in the collective global attention span

(McClinton, 2019)

A recent study from researchers of Denmark is suggesting that not only are individuals experiencing a decrease in attention span, our global attention span is also narrowing.

The researchers used several types of media from different sources including the last 40 years of movie ticket sales, Google books for 100 years, Twitter data from 2013 to 2016, Google Trends from 2010 to 2018 and Wikipedia attention time from 2012 to 2017. They then created a mathematical model to predict three factors:

· the “hotness” of the topic

· the progression of the topic through the public

· the desire for a new topic

Their data found periods of time where topics would be widely a source of attention, and promptly lose it as quickly (except in publications like Wikipedia and scientific journals). One finding was that a 2013 Twitter global trend would last an average of 17.5 hours, contrasted with a 2016 Twitter trend, which would last for only 11.9 hours.

Professor Sune Lehmann, who worked on the study, attributed this to an increase in content which exhausts our attention. In addition is an urge for “newness” that causes us to switch topics regularly.

The most surprising thing about the study, according to the study’s authors, was that the level of attention the topics reached remained nearly constant. Topics become popular more rapidly, but interest fades at a similarly increased rate. This creates narrower spans of collective attention with individual topics.

Video:

You learned about this study above. Now, hear a synopsis of the study (if you can focus for a couple of minutes).

The brain and attention: Cholinergic systems

(Queensland, 2018)

We get the message. Technology is affecting our attention span, both individually and collectively. But what does research say about attention in the brain?

Researchers in Queensland have focused on a system in the brain that allows us to respond to sensory information in different ways. In other words, paying attention to a car speeding towards you should involve different responses than paying attention to your friend in a crowded room.

The is the cholinergic system which triggers the brain to pay attention. The cholinergic system consists of clusters of neurons that create and release a molecule called acetylcholine, and these clusters make connections in the brain.

The cholinergic system acts as a master switch, but also may enable to help the brain identify which sensory input is most relevant at that moment, and then shine a spotlight on that input. Researchers also suspect that the cholinergic system may have a significant impact on cognitive abilities. Destruction of the system in animals resulted in a decrease in cognition and memory.

The researchers wanted to study how the cholinergic system interacts with the neurons. They found that if the output neurons were not currently active, nothing happened. But when the neurons received impulses, the cholinergic system was able to significantly increase their activity. The cholinergic system enables the output neurons to powerfully respond.

This is significant because it demonstrates that the change in the neurons was selective, and only happened when the excitatory impulses were present in the dendrites of the output neurons. Researchers suggested that this switch also occurs in the human neocortex, allowing a rapid switch between vigilance and attention. It also provides insight on how degeneration in the cholinergic system in disease is associated with cognitive decline.

Video:

Just two minutes of your time as you learn a little about the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the cholinergic system.

The brain and attention: Suppressing information

(Cepelewicz, 2019)

Much research on attention (such as the one above) focuses on the cortex, which is the part of the brain associated with intelligence and higher-order cognition. Activity in the cortex boosts sensory processing, probably involving the cholinergic system as discussed above.

But scientists are also wondering where in the brain attention is suppressed. And surprisingly, these areas might involve a more ancient region in the brain, the basal ganglia.

Attention is very difficult to study in the lab. But a neuroscientist from MIT wanted to see how the sensory inputs were filtered before the information reached the cortex. He focused on a layer of inhibitory neurons called the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), which wraps around the thalamus. He found that the TRN seemed to let sensory inputs through when the animal was awake and attentive, but suppressed them when the animal was asleep.

Further research was done to shut off activity in different areas of the brain to see what interfered with the animals’ performance. The prefrontal cortex was crucial. But the team also noticed that when the trial required the mice to attend to vision, turning on neurons in the visual TRN interfered with their performance. When those visual neurons were silenced, the mice had more difficulty attending to sound.

So, it appeared that the network turns the knobs on inhibitory processes, not excitability ones. The TRN would inhibit information that the prefrontal cortex found distracting. If the mouse needed to pay attention to auditory information, the prefrontal cortex told the visual TRN to increase its activity to suppress the visual thalamus, which stripped away irrelevant visual data.

Essentially, the brain wasn’t brightening the light on stimuli of interest, it was lowering the lights on everything else.

Further research was done to see what systems were involved in attention. They found the circuit traveled from the prefrontal cortex to the basal ganglia (associated with motor control and other functions), then to the TRN and the thalamus and finally to the higher cortical regions. As an example, as visual information passes from the eye to the visual thalamus, it can get intercepted if it is not relevant to the task. The basal ganglia can activate the visual TRN to screen out the stimuli, allowing focus on what is important.

Researcher found out that the system does not just filter out one sense, it can filter information within a single sense too, suppressing irrelevant background noise or visual cues. What was interesting, according to the study, was that filtering occurred at the very first step, even before the information reaches the visual cortex.

Things change, and fortunately our brains can change with it. It appears that the attentional spotlight seems to get weaker about 4 times a second, which prevents animals from becoming overly focused. This allows the brain to shift attention if something else is necessary. The brain seems to be wired to be distractible!

This study found that the basal ganglia is involved in sensory control. Researchers conclude that attention is about sequencing in the correct order and avoiding distractions when they are irrelevant. And because the motor system is part of the basal ganglia, the motor regions share input with the sensory systems. The brain receives sensory information and then responds with a motor response, but it can also experience a motor response (such as a flicker of an eye) which will trigger a sensory response. This guides perception, which means that we have to understand the world before we can act on a stimulus.

Attention and the brain: A brand new system!

(Rockefeller University, 2019)

Just late last year, a discovery was made which points to a new area of the brain which controls selective attention. This is significant because the last time an attention controlling area was discovered was 30 years ago.

The area of the brain, known as PITd, is part of the posterior inferotemporal cortex. Scientists were puzzled at the involvement of this area of the brain. It did not appear to contain motion sensitive neurons, and did not appear to be sensitive to other visual information, which suggested that it wasn’t a sensory processing area.

Scientists set out to see if the PITd contained any neurons that code to specific areas in our field of vision, only firing what that part was attended. They were pleased to discover that the neurons did show a liking for a specific location, meaning that these neurons were picking up areas in the field of vision that were relevant.

They found that just by listening to the neuron’s response could tell whether the subject was looking at the left or right side of the screen. It could even predict when the animals would make a mistake because they weren’t paying attention to the right spot. And these PITd neurons ignored what was happening on the screen, filtering out irrelevant visual data. As a final step, they found that stimulating the PITd could artificially activate it.

Learning about the PITd system may challenge scientists to rethink the systems associated with attention and how our brains are organized.

Finally, practical advice on paying attention!

(Cherry, 2019)

Can you improve your attention skills? Of course you can, with BrainHQ being one of the science driven tools to enhance attention. The activities in BrainHQ build your focus abilities. But there are other tips and tricks which science suggests may also help you to improve your focus. These can include:

1. Assess your current mental focus: If you find it easy to stay alert, can set goals and break them into smaller parts, and your work includes short breaks, then your current mental focus is good. However, if you are daydreaming, falling for distractions and losing track of progress, then you need to work more on your mental focus.

2. Eliminate distractions: You might want to set aside a specific time and place to be left alone. Or maybe you can go to a calm location where you can work undisturbed. Keep in mind that distractions may also come from within (exhaustion, worry, anxiety). Minimize or eliminate the internal distractions by making sure you are well-rested and are using positive thoughts and imagery to fight off anxiety and worry. If your mind wanders to distracting thoughts, bring the focus back to the present.

3. Focus on one thing at a time: Our attentional resources are limited, so we need to budget them. Stop multitasking, and give your attention to one thing at a time.

4. Live in the present: We have discussed this in multiple topics. If we are spending our effort thinking about the past or worrying about the future, we cannot pay attention to the present. Living in the present involves putting away the distractions and becoming fully engaged in the moment. Take it one step further by practicing mindfulness, which is a tool to help you focus on the present.

5. Take a short break: When focusing for a long time, the focus can become more difficult, and your performance may suffer. Our lesson suggests that this may be due to the brain’s tendency to ignore sources of constant stimulation. A brief break can shift your attention and improve mental focus.

6. Continue working on your focus: This is a skill, and requires time and practice. Practice these ideas, and spend time on the BrainHQ program to further build your focus.

Two very informative and inspirational talks about focus and paying attention

Video:

In this Ted Talk, we return to the topic of digital distractions and learn of the affects of tuning out our devices. This is a great speech, providing practical ways to improve our focus, and a new way of looking at lack of focus (it is not necessarily distraction but overstimulation!).

Video:

Another Ted Talk which reminds us about the benefits of mindfulness and how paying attention and focusing on the present can make us happier.

Summary:

This lesson looked at our attention, and how it looks in the brain. We also looked for practical ways to improve our focus. Here is a summary of the lesson.

Research on how we are doing with attention these days:

· A digital lifestyle does have a negative impact on prolonged focus

· Our global attention span is also narrowing

Research on the brain areas for attention:

· The cholinergic system contains neurons that use acetylcholine and can act as a master switch to turn off and on attention

· There are inhibitory neurons (TRN) that can be turned on and off, depending on the sensory input.

· The basal ganglia, works with the TRN to filter out irrelevant sensory information, both between senses and even within a particular sense.

· A new circuit was just discovered (PITd), which also filters out irrelevant data and that stimulating it could activate it.

Practical, science backed ways to improve attention:

· Eliminate distractions

· Focus on one thing at a time, no multitasking!

· Live in the present, using mindfulness techniques

· Take short breaks when focusing on a topic

· Continue to work on your focus by using BrainHQ and other techniques

Works Cited

(2015). Attention Spans. Canada: Microsoft. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/265348695/Microsoft-Attention-Spans-Research-Report

Cepelewicz, J. (2019, September 24). To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight. Retrieved from quantamagazine.org: https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-pay-attention-the-brain-uses-filters-not-a-spotlight-20190924/

Cherry, K. (2019, September 30). 7 Useful Tips for Improving Your Mental Focus. Retrieved from verywellmind.com: https://www.verywellmind.com/things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mental-focus-4115389

McClinton, D. (2019, April 17). Global attention span is narrowing and trends don't last as long, study reveals. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/16/got-a-minute-global-attention-span-is-narrowing-study-reveals

Queensland, U. o. (2018, December 27). How the brain enables us to rapidly focus attention. Retrieved from ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181227102057.htm

Rockefeller University. (2019, December 19). A surprising new source of attention in the brain. Retrieved from medicalxpress.com: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-source-attention-brain.html

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