Brain Waves’ Role In Attention

This piece, by Onno Berkan, was published on 10/29/24. The original text, by van Ede et al., was published by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on 05/01/24.

This Vrije University study explored how our brain manages attention when dealing with information stored in working memory, our mental workspace for temporary information storage and manipulation. The researchers were particularly interested in understanding how both voluntary (conscious) and involuntary (automatic) attention processes interact when we're trying to remember visual information.

Building on previous research, the study investigated how people select and prioritize items stored in their working memory. The key innovation was the addition of EEG recordings to measure brain activity while participants performed memory tasks, along with some modifications to make the visual cues clearer.

When participants had to manage competing voluntary and involuntary attention demands, their ability to prioritize the appropriate memory item was delayed. This delay was evident in two ways: through tracking participants' eye movements and by measuring the brain's preparation for upcoming manual responses.

The researchers discovered that this competition between voluntary and involuntary attention was accompanied by specific brain activity patterns, particularly in the frontal midline theta (FMT) waves. These brain waves were found to influence how well participants performed the memory-guided tasks. These brain waves appeared to help control attention and influenced how quickly people could respond.

An important finding was that when voluntary and involuntary factors competed for attention, it didn't just slow down the selection of the correct memory item– it also delayed the brain's preparation to act on that information. This suggests that the competition between different types of attention affects multiple stages of information processing, from selection to action planning.

The study's design also allowed researchers to separate the processes of cognitive control from memory retention, showing that frontal midline theta activity was more related to control demands than to how much information was being held in memory. This helps clarify how different brain processes contribute to working memory performance.

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