Improve Concentration For Hobbies
Attentional control refers to individuals' capacity to choose what they pay
attention to and what they ignore. It is also known as endogenous attention
or executive attention. Attentional control can be described as an individual's
ability for 'concentration' in contrast to 'alertness'. Primarily mediated by
the frontal areas of the brain including the anterior cingulate cortex,
attentional control is thought to be closely related to other executive
functions such as working memory.
Research
Posner & Peterson explain how sources of attention in our brain create a
system, which can be categorized into 3 networks: alertness (maintaining
awareness), orientation (information from sensory input), and executive control
(resolving conflict). Experimental designs that study these 3 networks range
from participants of adults, children, monkeys, and those with and without
abnormalities of attention. Some research designs include the Stroop task
and flanker task (developed by Eriksen and Eriksen) both of 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. Recently, experimenters have been studying
attention with The Attention Network Test (ANT), designed by Fan and Posner,
which requires participants to quickly respond to cues given on a computer
screen, while having their attention fixated on a center target.
Relevance to mental illnesses
Studies have shown that there is a high probability that those who suffer
from low attentional control also experience other mental conditions. Low
attentional control is more common among those with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),"a disorder with persistent age-inappropriate
symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are sufficient to
cause impairment in major life activities". Also low attentional control is
common in individuals with Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, those
with social anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression, and attention
difficulties following a stroke. Individuals also respond quicker, and have
better overall executive control when they have low levels of anxiety and
depression. Low levels of attentional control are also thought to increase
chances of developing a psychopathology because the ability to shift one’s focus
away from threat information is important in processing emotions.[12] More
researchers are also accounting for attentional control in studies that might
not necessarily focus on attention by having participants fill out an
Attentional Control Scale (ACS) or a Cognitive Attentional Syndrome-1
(CAS1), both of which are self-reporting questionnaires measuring attention
focusing and attention shifting. Researchers are also suggesting others in
the field use experimental and longitudinal designs to address the relationship
between ACS, emotional functioning, CAS, and attention to threat. This is due to
the increasing problematic occurrences experts are seeing in the field regarding
attentional control in relation to other mental illnesses.
Abnormal development
Disrupted attentional control have been noted not just in the early
development of conditions for which the core deficit is related to attention
such as ADHD, but also in conditions such as autism and anxiety.
Disrupted attentional control has also been reported in infants born
preterm, as well as in infants with genetic disorders such as Down syndrome
and Williams syndrome. Several groups have also reported impaired
attentional control early in development in children from lower socioeconomic
status families.
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. The question of why the executive
functions appear to be disrupted across so many different disorder groups
remains, however, poorly understood.
Development
Infancy
Early researchers studying the development of the frontal cortex thought that
it was functionally silent during the first year of life. Similarly, early
research suggested that infants aged one year or younger are completely passive
in the allocation of their attention, and have no capacity to choose what they
pay attention to and what they ignore. This is shown, for example, in the
phenomenon of 'sticky fixation', whereby infants are incapable of disengaging
their attention from a particularly salient target. Other research has
suggested, however, that even very young infants do have some capacity to
exercise control over their allocation of attention, albeit in a much more
limited sense.
Childhood
As the frontal lobes mature, children's capacity to exercise attentional
control increases, although attentional control abilities remain much poorer
in children than they do in adults. Some children show impaired development
of attentional control abilities, thought to arise from the relatively slower
development of frontal areas of the brain, which sometimes results in a
diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Mindfulness
Even four days of mindfulness meditation training can significantly improve
visuo-spatial processing, working memory and executive functioning.
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, feature, and object-based. More information is
available about Visual Attention, which explains the absence of other modalities
such as auditory attention.
Spatial focus of attention
See also: Object based attention
According to fMRI studies of the brain and behavioral observations, visual
attention can be moved independently of moving eye position. Studies have had
participants fixate their eyes on a central point and measured brain activity as
stimuli were presented outside the visual fixation point. fMRI findings show
changes in brain activity correlated with the shift in spatial attention to the
various stimuli. Behavioral studies have also shown that when a person knows
where a stimulus is likely to appear, their attention can shift to it more
rapidly and process it better.
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.
Long-term significance
Importance for learning
Modular approaches view cognitive development as a mosaic-like process,
according to which cognitive faculties develop separately according to
genetically predetermined maturational timetables. Prominent authors who take a
modular approach to cognitive development include Jerry Fodor, Elizabeth Spelke
and Steven Pinker. In contrast, other authors such as Annette Karmiloff-Smith,
Mark Johnson and Linda Smith have instead advocated taking a more interactive or
dynamical systems approaches to cognitive development. According to these
approaches, which are known as neuroconstructivist approaches, cognitive systems
interact over developmental time as certain cognitive faculties are required for
the subsequent acquisition of other faculties in other areas.
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. The ability to regulate and
direct attention releases the child from the constraints of only responding to
environmental events, and means they are able actively to guide their attention
towards the information-rich areas key for learning. For example, a number of
authors have looked at the relationship between an infants' capacity to exercise
attentional control and their subsequent performance during language
acquisition.
attention to and what they ignore. It is also known as endogenous attention
or executive attention. Attentional control can be described as an individual's
ability for 'concentration' in contrast to 'alertness'. Primarily mediated by
the frontal areas of the brain including the anterior cingulate cortex,
attentional control is thought to be closely related to other executive
functions such as working memory.
Research
Posner & Peterson explain how sources of attention in our brain create a
system, which can be categorized into 3 networks: alertness (maintaining
awareness), orientation (information from sensory input), and executive control
(resolving conflict). Experimental designs that study these 3 networks range
from participants of adults, children, monkeys, and those with and without
abnormalities of attention. Some research designs include the Stroop task
and flanker task (developed by Eriksen and Eriksen) both of 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. Recently, experimenters have been studying
attention with The Attention Network Test (ANT), designed by Fan and Posner,
which requires participants to quickly respond to cues given on a computer
screen, while having their attention fixated on a center target.
Relevance to mental illnesses
Studies have shown that there is a high probability that those who suffer
from low attentional control also experience other mental conditions. Low
attentional control is more common among those with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),"a disorder with persistent age-inappropriate
symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are sufficient to
cause impairment in major life activities". Also low attentional control is
common in individuals with Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, those
with social anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression, and attention
difficulties following a stroke. Individuals also respond quicker, and have
better overall executive control when they have low levels of anxiety and
depression. Low levels of attentional control are also thought to increase
chances of developing a psychopathology because the ability to shift one’s focus
away from threat information is important in processing emotions.[12] More
researchers are also accounting for attentional control in studies that might
not necessarily focus on attention by having participants fill out an
Attentional Control Scale (ACS) or a Cognitive Attentional Syndrome-1
(CAS1), both of which are self-reporting questionnaires measuring attention
focusing and attention shifting. Researchers are also suggesting others in
the field use experimental and longitudinal designs to address the relationship
between ACS, emotional functioning, CAS, and attention to threat. This is due to
the increasing problematic occurrences experts are seeing in the field regarding
attentional control in relation to other mental illnesses.
Abnormal development
Disrupted attentional control have been noted not just in the early
development of conditions for which the core deficit is related to attention
such as ADHD, but also in conditions such as autism and anxiety.
Disrupted attentional control has also been reported in infants born
preterm, as well as in infants with genetic disorders such as Down syndrome
and Williams syndrome. Several groups have also reported impaired
attentional control early in development in children from lower socioeconomic
status families.
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. The question of why the executive
functions appear to be disrupted across so many different disorder groups
remains, however, poorly understood.
Development
Infancy
Early researchers studying the development of the frontal cortex thought that
it was functionally silent during the first year of life. Similarly, early
research suggested that infants aged one year or younger are completely passive
in the allocation of their attention, and have no capacity to choose what they
pay attention to and what they ignore. This is shown, for example, in the
phenomenon of 'sticky fixation', whereby infants are incapable of disengaging
their attention from a particularly salient target. Other research has
suggested, however, that even very young infants do have some capacity to
exercise control over their allocation of attention, albeit in a much more
limited sense.
Childhood
As the frontal lobes mature, children's capacity to exercise attentional
control increases, although attentional control abilities remain much poorer
in children than they do in adults. Some children show impaired development
of attentional control abilities, thought to arise from the relatively slower
development of frontal areas of the brain, which sometimes results in a
diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Mindfulness
Even four days of mindfulness meditation training can significantly improve
visuo-spatial processing, working memory and executive functioning.
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, feature, and object-based. More information is
available about Visual Attention, which explains the absence of other modalities
such as auditory attention.
Spatial focus of attention
See also: Object based attention
According to fMRI studies of the brain and behavioral observations, visual
attention can be moved independently of moving eye position. Studies have had
participants fixate their eyes on a central point and measured brain activity as
stimuli were presented outside the visual fixation point. fMRI findings show
changes in brain activity correlated with the shift in spatial attention to the
various stimuli. Behavioral studies have also shown that when a person knows
where a stimulus is likely to appear, their attention can shift to it more
rapidly and process it better.
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.
Long-term significance
Importance for learning
Modular approaches view cognitive development as a mosaic-like process,
according to which cognitive faculties develop separately according to
genetically predetermined maturational timetables. Prominent authors who take a
modular approach to cognitive development include Jerry Fodor, Elizabeth Spelke
and Steven Pinker. In contrast, other authors such as Annette Karmiloff-Smith,
Mark Johnson and Linda Smith have instead advocated taking a more interactive or
dynamical systems approaches to cognitive development. According to these
approaches, which are known as neuroconstructivist approaches, cognitive systems
interact over developmental time as certain cognitive faculties are required for
the subsequent acquisition of other faculties in other areas.
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. The ability to regulate and
direct attention releases the child from the constraints of only responding to
environmental events, and means they are able actively to guide their attention
towards the information-rich areas key for learning. For example, a number of
authors have looked at the relationship between an infants' capacity to exercise
attentional control and their subsequent performance during language
acquisition.