In the Human Brain, Attention Focuses First on Simple Features Before Zeroing in on Details
Attention can be fleeting, sharpened by focus, caught, or given. Some people are generally good at holding attention, while others excel at hyper-focusing in certain areas. But what sparks the neuronal cascade in our brains at the very beginning of attention, and is that the same for everyone?
Scientists from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, measured the brain activity of participants simply observing colorful bouncing dots on a screen. Their study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, showed a clear pattern: the brain’s attention first locked on broader features and then narrowed down to specific traits, revealing a remarkably efficient system for processing attention.
“This means that the brain’s attention mechanisms are organized in a hierarchy such that it prepares for perceiving a stimulus by narrowing the focus of our attention over time,” said study co-author George Mangun, co-director of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, in a press release.
This could help us better understand attentional differences, such as those seen in ADHD and autism.
Measuring “Anticipatory Attention”
How exactly our brains direct attention to the outside world is still not fully understood. Do we first latch onto a specific feature, or do we start by noticing simple characteristics? Take a bicycle moving toward you: what does your brain process first?
To find out, the UC Davis team invited 25 adults to complete simple attention tasks. Participants underwent electroencephalogram (EEG) tests to measure brain activity, along with eye tracking, while paying attention to moving colored dots on a screen. The researchers focused on how long it took the brain to get ready to pay attention, also known as “anticipatory attention.”
The collected data was then analyzed with machine learning software to determine whether the brain first prepared for broad categories (such as color or movement) before narrowing in on specific details (such as a particular color or direction of motion).
Read More: No Matter How Old You Are, This Mindfulness Exercise Can Sharpen Your Attention
Attention Starts Broad, Then Narrows Within Milliseconds
With the software’s help, the team tracked how much time the brain spent processing different characteristics. On average, it took 240 milliseconds to focus on the dots’ general features, compared to 400 milliseconds to zero in on specific features.
“When attention is directed to the color of the moving dots, it suppresses attention to the direction of motion, and vice versa,” said lead author Sreenivasan Meyyappan, a scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain, in the statement. “This broad focus of attention is then narrowed further to suppress the irrelevant colors as well, supporting processing of the specific color or motion of interest.”
Mangun compared the process to navigating a plane: “The control systems involved in attention are broadly tuning the brain first and then narrowing it down. It’s like a pilot flying a plane toward Europe and then toward the end zooming in on Rotterdam and not Berlin.”
Informing ADHD Research
“[The] study tells us that our brains first prepare to focus attention by activating neurons representing the broad category of the anticipated object and then quickly sharpens that focus,” said Mangun.
Research like this adds to our understanding of how the brain processes information in the very first moments of attention. Those insights are especially valuable for studying conditions like ADHD and autism, where focusing can be a challenge, and could inspire future treatment approaches.
Read More: Supplements Like Zinc and Vitamin B12 Can Help Brain and Memory Disorders
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article: