In the the past, neuroscientists have been limited to observing patients with a lack of attention. Given the technological advances of modern society, they are now able to understand the mechanism behind inattention. The benefits of inattention are boundless. Ironically, inattention can help us focus more on what we deem important. We can learn to ignore the snoring roommate, the garbage trucks beyond the walls of dorms as well as the roar of the CTA. Clinically, control over attention may lead to new treatments for depression and pain management.
A publication in the Journal of Neuroscience, Attention Drives Synchronization of Alpha and Beta Rhythms between Right Inferior Frontal and Primary Sensory Neocortex, suggests a synchrony between different regions in the brain is involved with inhibition of incoming sensory stimuli (Sacchet et al.). Researchers at Brown University designed an experiment to test brain wave frequencies in relation to distractors. Twelve volunteers were informed of tapping on either the left middle finger or left big toe, and then asked to only report one of those sensations. Therefore some in some trials, the focus was on the toe and in others the focus was on the finger. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), the researchers were able to note two patterns emerging from activity in the somatosensory cortex and the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC), involved with tactile sensation and suppression of attention respectively.
The first pattern was a higher alpha wave synchrony ( 7-14 Hz) between the somatosensory cortex region responsible for the distractor and the rIFC region. This pattern was noted shortly after the patients were told to focus on a stimulus, but before any tapping was done. The second pattern discovered was an increase in beta wave synchrony ( 15-29 Hz) between the somatosensory cortex region for the distractor and the rIFC. The second pattern emerged as the subjects were preparing to report the sensation. It appears that manipulation of these brain wave frequencies may allow us to control what is ignored or suppressed, even before the event happens.
Although this research is seemingly distant to clinical applications, it is a step towards understanding the mechanism behind inattention. Once a basic mechanism is known, we can try to determine the best way of manipulating these brain frequencies and answering any questions encountered along the way. For now, we just have suffer through a few more years with a noisy roommate, the garbage truck and the CTA.
Sources:
Sacchet, M. D., R. A. Laplante, Q. Wan, D. L. Pritchett, A. K. C. Lee, M. Hamalainen,
C. I. Moore, C. E.Kerr, and S. R. Jones. "Attention Drives Synchronization of Alpha
and Beta Rhythms between Right Inferior Frontal and Primary Sensory Neocortex."
Journal of Neuroscience35.5 (2015): 2074-082. Web.
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http://www.halifaxpsychologist.com/adhd.html
This concept of inattention is very interesting especially because I have never really thought of the term before in this context. I have read before that inattention is one of the most common symptoms seen in children with ADHD and ADD, but I never really thought of ways, how inattention can actually be beneficial to us until I read this blog post. I can now think of a million ways why being able to block out noise pollution, and unpleasant scenery would be extremely helpful (at least to me anyway). I find it very interesting how research has come a long way and because of these technological advances we are closer to many scientific breakthroughs. I am also curious to know, how inattention is similar to selective attention.
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