KIDS ARTICLES

Hi kids,we hope all are enjoying the holidays. Today we are going to discuss about an
article published in Frontiers for young minds which explains about paying attention
to one particular task and not getting distracted from it.

Now tell me how many of you have got scolding from your mother for not responding
her when you were watching TV. Guess it happens daily!!!...Read this article and get
to understand why this ignorance happens.

How We Pay Attention????

How are you able to focus on your homework when your sister is running around the
room chasing the dog?

Scientific fact behind paying attention

Your brain helps you do that, by changing the intensity of the sights and sounds coming
from the distracting play of your sister. Sensory signals entering your brain through
your eyes and ears have to be processed in sensory brain areas, and the brain’s attention
system helps you to manage sensory information so that the most important information
is processed with high priority.

The brain has powerful mechanisms that permit us to focus our attention on some things
(like doing your homework) and avoid other distracting sounds or sights (like playing,
chasing dog).

BRAIN ACTIVITY WHILE PAYING ATTENTION

In humans, one powerful method used to examine what is going on inside the brain is
to record the electrical activity produced by the brain when it is active. Brain cells
(neurons) send information to one another using small electrical signals. These tiny
electrical signals can flow up through the tissues and across the skull and scalp, where
they can be recorded using electrodes (small metal disks) attached to the scalp.
Electrical devices called amplifiers boost the tiny signals so we can observe them more
easily. This method is called electroencephalography (EEG) and the recorded signals
are called electroencephalograms.The brain waves that occur in response to both visual
and auditory events change depending on whether the person is paying attention to the
sight or sound or ignoring it.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ABOUT HOW WE ARE ABLE TO PAY

ATTENTION?

Let us consider the case of watching TV. While you were focusing your attention on
the pictures on the TV, your brain was increasing the visual (and auditory) responses to
the TV show in brain and was suppressing other inputs that you were not interested in
at that time. So, the reason that you did not seem to see or hear your mother’s voice is
that the signals in your brain produced by your mother’s voices and faces were being
suppressed, because your attention was focused on the TV. When you focus your
attention, your brain is doing the same thing—it is changing the strength of the sights
and sounds (and touches, and smells and tastes) in the world to help you do a good job,
whatever that job might be.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Think about it for a moment—do you really perceive everything that is in front of you?
Try searching a drawer of junk to find something you need—is it easy? If you need to
study for an exam, does it help or hurt to have loud music, the TV, or other distractions?

Attention is a basic brain function that humans (and animals) need so they can
perform tasks effectively, and so that they can learn and survive in a potentially
dangerous world. Attention lets you focus on the most important things at the time to
prevent distraction and the brain has evolved powerful methods to do just that.
Newborns have a very early form of attention called “stimulus orienting”. ... These
attentional processes are controlled mainly by the prefrontal cortex in the brain. They
take a long time to develop fully, still changing as children move into their late teens.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Understanding how the brain enables selective attention is also important for the
treatment of certain disabilities, like attention deficit disorder, which affects a
significant portion of the population and results in diminished ability to focus attention
and prevent distraction.

Reference

[1] ↑ Posner, M. I. 2008. Measuring alertness. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1129:193–9. doi:
10.1196/annals.1417.011

[2] ↑ Posner, M. I., Snyder, C. R., and Davidson, B. J. 1980. Attention and the
detection of signals. J. Exp. Psychol. 109:160–74.
[3] ↑ Luck, S. J., Woodman, G. F., and Vogel, E. K. 2000. Event-related potential
studies of attention. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4:432–40. doi: 10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01545-
x

[4] ↑ Van Voorhis, S., and Hillyard, S. A. 1977. Visual evoked potentials and
selective attention to points in space. Percept. Psychophys. 22:54–62.

[5] ↑ Eason, R., Harter, M., and White, C. 1969. Effects of attention and arousal on
visually evoked cortical potentials and reaction time in man. Physiol. Behav. 4:283–9.

[6] ↑ Mangun, G. R., and Hillyard, S. A. 1991. Modulations of sensory-evoked brain

potentials indicate changes in perceptual processing during visual-spatial priming. J.
Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 17:1057–74.

Article information
Citation
Mangun G (2020) How We Pay Attention. Front. Young Minds. 8:29. doi:
10.3389/frym.2020.00029

Editor
Gideon Caplovitz

Publishing dates

Submitted: May 22, 2019; Accepted: February 27, 2020; Published online: March 23,
2020.Copyright © 2020 Mangun.