Attentional control
Attentional control, colloquially referred to as concentration, refers to an individual's capacity to choose what they pay
General overview of research
Sources of attention in the brain create a system of three networks: alertness (maintaining awareness), orientation (information from sensory input), and executive control (resolving conflict).[2] These three networks have been studied using experimental designs involving adults, children, and monkeys, with and without abnormalities of attention.[4] Research designs include the Stroop task [5] and flanker task, which study executive control with analysis techniques including event-related functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI). While some research designs focus specifically on one aspect of attention (such as executive control), others experiments view several areas, which examine interactions between the alerting, orienting, and executive control networks.[4] More recently, the Attention Network Test (ANT), designed by Fan and Posner, has been used to obtain efficiency measures of the three networks, and allow their relationships to be examined. It was designed as a behavioural task simple enough to obtain data from children, patients, and animals.[6] The task requires participants to quickly respond to cues given on a computer screen, while having their attention fixated on a center target.[7]
Development
Infancy
Early researchers studying the development of the
Childhood
As the
Elderly
Some studies of aging and cognition focus on working memory processes and declines in attentional control. One study used fMRI measures during a Stroop task comparing neural activity of attentional control in younger (21–27 years) and older participants (60–75 years). Conditions included increased competition and increased conflict. Results showed evidence of decreases in responsiveness in brain areas associated with attentional control for the older group. This result suggests that older people may have decreases in their ability to utilize attentional control in their everyday lives.[16][17]
A major contributor to age-related decreased attentional control includes the weight of the brain. Several studies conclude that the brain experiences rapid weight loss after the age of 60. This loss of brain weight results from a decrease in cerebral white matter and gray matter.[18] White matter is the area in the brain responsible for exchanging information between gray matter areas.[19] Gray matter tissue in the central nervous system enables individuals to interact with the world and carry out highly skilled functions. Studies reveal that individuals who engage in physical activity increase the cortical volume of gray matter later in life, preventing age-related atrophy and promoting attentional control.[20] However, because most individuals' brains undergo pathological changes after the age of 80 or develop cardiac disease, neuron loss occurs and the brain volume decreases.[18]
Abnormal development
Disrupted attentional control has been noted not just in the early development of conditions for which the core deficit is related to attention such as ADHD,
The patterns of disrupted attentional control relate to findings of disrupted performance on executive functions tasks such as working memory across a wide number of different disorder groups.[1] The question of why the executive functions appear to be disrupted across so many different disorder groups remains, however, poorly understood.
Relevance to mental illness
Studies have shown that there is a high probability that those with low attentional control also experience other mental conditions. Low attentional control is more common among those with
Attention problems are also characteristic of anxiety disorders like PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). A recent review revealed that 61.2% of current studies found that participants who experienced PTSD suffered from significant attentional control problems.[33] These problems caused by PTSD can lead to the development of an attentional bias, which causes a person to process emotionally negative information preferentially over emotionally positive information.[34] Patients who suffer from PTSD commonly struggle to concentrate on certain tasks for longer periods of time, allowing intrusive thoughts to override their current focus.[35] This interference can be caused by many different factors, but it is most commonly triggered by emotional cues, particularly the emotion of fear. Attention is considered a gateway function to advanced cognitive processes such as memory and learning, and attentional interference can cause such cognitive processes to decrease.[33] In recent years, attentional control therapies have been used to improve attentional control in patients who suffer from PTSD. More recently, yoga and meditation were found to positivity affect attentional control in patients who have experienced PTSD.[36]
Applications
Performance
Attentional control theory focuses on anxiety and cognitive performance. The assumption of this theory is that the effects of anxiety on attentional control are key to understanding the relationship between anxiety and performance. In general, anxiety inhibits attentional control on a specific task by impairing processing efficiency.[37] There are three functions associated with this theory. The inhibition function prevents stimuli unrelated to a task and responses from disrupting performance. The shifting function is used to allocate attention to the stimuli that are most relevant to the task. The updating function is used to update and monitor information in working memory.[37][38] There are three main hypotheses associated with attentional control theory. First, the efficiency of the central executive is impaired by anxiety. Second, anxiety impairs the inhibition function, and third, anxiety impairs the shifting function.[39] Studies related to attentional control and performance take two differing approaches. Specifically, research on attentional capture has two modes: voluntary and reflexive. The voluntary mode is a top down approach where attention is shifted according to high-level cognitive processes. The reflexive mode is a bottom up approach where attention shifts involuntarily based on a stimulus's attention attracting properties.[40] These modes are important to understanding how attentional control works.
Mindfulness
Even four days of
Learning
Amongst authors who take neuroconstructivist approaches to development, particular importance has been attached to attentional control, since it is thought to be a domain-general process that may influence the subsequent acquisition of other skills in other areas.[46] The ability to regulate and direct attention releases the child from the constraints of only responding to environmental events, and means they are able to actively guide their attention towards the information-rich areas key for learning. For example, a number of authors have looked at the relationship between an infant's capacity to exercise attentional control and their subsequent performance during language acquisition.[47][48] Working memory capacity has been studied to understand how memory functions. The ability to predict the effectiveness of someone's working memory capacity comes from attentional control mechanisms. These mechanisms help with the regulation of goals, behavior, and outside distractions, which are all important for effective learning.[49][50]
Visual attentional control
Our brains have distinct attention systems that have been shaped throughout time by evolution. Visual attention operates mainly on three different representations: location[51] ,[52] feature, and object-based.[53][54] The spatial separation between two objects has an effect on attention. People can selectively pay attention to one of two objects in the same general location.[55] Research has also been done on attention to non-object based things like motion. When directing attention to a feature like motion, neuronal activity increases in areas specific for the feature. When visually searching for a non-spatial feature or a perceptual feature, selectively enhancing the sensitivity to that specific feature plays a role in directing attention.[56] When people are told to look for motion, then motion will capture their attention, but attention is not captured by motion if they are told to look for color.[40][57]
Spatial focus of attention
According to
Other studies have demonstrated that perceptual and cognitive load affect spatial focusing of attention. These two mechanisms interact oppositely so that when cognitive load is decreased, perceptual load must be high to increase spatial attention focusing.[59]
Auditory alertness
The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon that a person hears his or her name even when not attending to the conversation. To study this, a screening measure for attentional control was given that tested a person's ability to keep track of words while also doing math problems. Participants were separated into two groups---low and high span attentional control ability groups. They listened to two word lists read simultaneously by a male and a female voice and were told to ignore the male voice. Their name was read by the "ignored" male voice. Low span people were more likely to hear their name compared to high span people. This result suggests that people with lower attentional control ability have more trouble inhibiting information from the surrounding environment.[60]
See also
References
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Further reading
- Mangun, George R. (2012). The Neuroscience of Attention. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
- Bear, Mark; Connors, Barry; Paradiso, Michael (2007). Neuroscience Exploring the Brain. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 9780781760034.
- Linnell, Karina J.; Serge Caparos (18 July 2011). "Perceptual and Cognitive Load interact to Control the Spatial Focus of Attention". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 5. 37 (5): 1643–1648. PMID 21767051.