Mindfulness: The Brain’s Attention Boss Transcript: Speaker 1 I started getting a little bit antsy around this because what we were finding repeatedly that my advisors had already known was that this system of the brain is extremely powerful. So much so that I’ll refer to it as the brain’s boss because we know that wherever it is that we devote our attention will modify almost the entirety of the computational functioning Of the brain. I can bias it in very, very profound ways. So if it is this boss, I started getting excited in my early years as an assistant professor, that was at the University of Pennsylvania, on what we could do to perturb attention. (Time 0:04:04)
Attention Requires More than Just Games Negative mood and psychosocial threats can significantly impair attention, leading to serious consequences for how information is processed. Early 2000s studies on brain training methods highlighted a growing interest in improving attention through simple game-like tasks. However, while participants often improved at these specific games, this did not translate into a lasting enhancement of general attentional abilities. Subtle changes in task demands would reveal that no fundamental strengthening of attention as a resource had occurred, indicating that more comprehensive approaches are needed for effective attention training. Transcript: Speaker 1 So either negative mood inductions or psychosocial threat, telling them that they’re not doing as well as other folks, stressing them out in various ways and repeatedly and reliably We saw that their attention failed them. So we started getting a picture of all the ways in which you could perturb attention. And that of course led to devastating consequences for the normal ways in which attention could bias information processing. And that’s what, from the laboratory perspective, got me extremely curious and I would say desperate to find some way in which we might train attention. So this was the early 2000s. And at that point, sort of two things were happening. In the cognitive neuroscience literature, there was a proliferation of studies on brain training approaches, right? So these simple behavioral tasks that people play as games and seeing if we can actually strengthen functioning. And even at that point, now it’s sort of been very much clarified that this is a problematic approach because you get better at the game, but not much else. There’s many, I think, very well-intentioned enterprises that have, and then many researchers that have tried to do this in their laboratories. But the problem was you’d get better and better at the game, but then we shifted even the most subtle aspects of the perceptual input or the task demands, you were back to square one. So we weren’t seeing that there’s some core strengthening of attention as a general resource. (Time 0:04:47)
Attention Is an Ancient Battle Ground Attention has long been a critical issue for humanity, predating modern digital distractions such as smartphones. The struggle for attention reflects a longstanding crisis rooted in the human condition, illustrating the challenge of processing an overwhelming amount of information in our environment. The definitions of attention, mindfulness, and consciousness are interconnected, each playing a role in our cognitive processing. Understanding how these concepts relate highlights the evolutionary purpose of attention as a necessary cognitive tool, evolved to manage the complexity and abundance of stimuli in our surroundings. Transcript: Speaker 2 So you’re interested in all of this, it’s perhaps surprising to realize that all of this precedes what the smartphone has done to everybody’s life, right? I mean, it’s amazing. When we think about a crisis of attention now and a war being fought for our attention, I think the first thing people think of now, really the front lines of this battle is the computer They’re carrying around in their pockets. But obviously, this has been a problem for thousands of years and everything the Buddha recommended was appropriate to a scattered human mind 2,500 years ago. But define a few terms. How do you define attention? How would you differentiate it from mindfulness? And how do you think about these both of those things in relation to consciousness or awareness, which I use as synonyms? All three. Yeah. So you go for attention mindfulness and just the basic faculty of consciousness slash awareness slash sentience. Yeah. Speaker 1 Well, I definitely want to dig in on how that relates to what I’ll tell you in my view of attention. So the main thing about attention is that it really, if we think about it sort of evolutionary purpose, right, or how it became something that we all possess in our own minds, to solve A big computational problem that the brain suffered from, that there was just far more information in the environment than could be fully processed in any one moment. (Time 0:12:07)
Attention: A Selective Cognitive Process Attention serves a crucial evolutionary role, enabling organisms to manage the overwhelming surplus of environmental information by selecting a subset for deeper processing. This selection process involves the brain’s computational power to focus on relevant stimuli, thereby addressing a significant cognitive challenge. From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, attention encompasses multiple functions rather than being a singular concept, highlighting its complexity in how it operates within the mind. Transcript: Speaker 2 Yeah. So you go for attention mindfulness and just the basic faculty of consciousness slash awareness slash sentience. Yeah. Speaker 1 Well, I definitely want to dig in on how that relates to what I’ll tell you in my view of attention. So the main thing about attention is that it really, if we think about it sort of evolutionary purpose, right, or how it became something that we all possess in our own minds, to solve A big computational problem that the brain suffered from, that there was just far more information in the environment than could be fully processed in any one moment. So the notion of selecting a subset of what is experiencing for full interrogation using the full computational power of the brain, whether it’s in much less sophisticated organisms Than the human brain, makes sense to me. And from the kind of standard cognitive neuroscience perspective, attention in its selection ability isn’t one thing, but at least three things. And we could probably laundry list even more. (Time 0:13:02)
Illuminate the Mind: Selective Focus and Awareness Attention operates through distinct systems, with the first being selective focus that privileges certain information while excluding others, leading to biased perceptions. This can be likened to a flashlight in a dark room, guiding attention towards specific aspects to navigate challenges. In contrast, the second system emphasizes awareness of the moment itself rather than content, reflecting the brain’s alerting mechanism. Together, these systems illustrate the dynamic nature of attention in shaping our experiences and responses. Transcript: Speaker 1 But the three ways in which we pay attention really guide and connect to your second part of your question regarding mindfulness. So the first system of attention is really regarding sort of selective focus or selection, content-based privileging of some information at the exclusion of other information. And that prioritizing and privileging in the brain, we know, shows up as biased information in favor of what we pay attention to. So this would be something like the brain’s orienting system, as well as aspects of what executive functioning does. But the core thing here is some things matter and our advantage and other things are not. So I refer to this in this kind of metaphor of a flashlight. So if you’re in a darkened room, this aspect of attention would be like having a flashlight privilege wherever it is that you’re directing it toward. And the holding of the flashlight is its sort of endogenous or control capability, that you can move around and guide what you need to do on a sort of piece by piece basis to put together, Making your way out of the room if you’re in a darkened room. So the features of this kind of attention are really narrow, constrained, high signal-to ratio. But if we move away from that system and kind of talk about the next aspect of attention, it’s almost the exact opposite. And it might even tie into what you were describing as awareness, which is formally the brain’s alerting system. So this we could think of as privileging not the content like the flashlight, but the moment. (Time 0:14:00)
Illuminate Your Focus: The Three Faces of Attention Attention is multifaceted, comprising three distinct aspects: focused, alerting, and goal-related selection. The first aspect, akin to a flashlight, allows for narrow, directed attention with high signal-to-noise ratio for specific tasks. The second aspect resembles a floodlight, broadening awareness to encompass the entirety of the present moment, characterized by low signal-to-noise ratio and a receptive nature. The third aspect prioritizes actions based on specific goals, shifting focus not on content or moment but on achieving desired outcomes. These three dimensions interact and are supported by different brain systems, providing a comprehensive understanding of how attention functions. Transcript: Speaker 1 So if you’re in a darkened room, this aspect of attention would be like having a flashlight privilege wherever it is that you’re directing it toward. And the holding of the flashlight is its sort of endogenous or control capability, that you can move around and guide what you need to do on a sort of piece by piece basis to put together, Making your way out of the room if you’re in a darkened room. So the features of this kind of attention are really narrow, constrained, high signal-to ratio. But if we move away from that system and kind of talk about the next aspect of attention, it’s almost the exact opposite. And it might even tie into what you were describing as awareness, which is formally the brain’s alerting system. So this we could think of as privileging not the content like the flashlight, but the moment. Because really when you think about being alert, it’s about what is happening, the full spectrum of what is happening right now. You can’t save up being alert for later. Low signal to noise ratio, broad, receptive. And sometimes I’ll refer to this as sort of a floodlight. Just everything that is happening without a selectivity is illuminated in this moment for your full conscious access. So narrow, directed, broad and receptive. And then the third aspect of attention, which of course, all of these interact with each other in some way and are supported by distinct brain systems. The third aspect is really regarding goal related selection. So it’s not based on the particular content or the moment like the first two, but what are my goals in this moment? What do I want to be doing? (Time 0:14:42)
Guided Focus: The Mind’s Flashlight Goal-directed attention operates like a flashlight, illuminating specific areas of interest while remaining susceptible to distractions from both the environment and internal thoughts. It reflects a dynamic interplay between executive control and attentional selection, allowing individuals to focus on external tasks or recall past experiences. Mindfulness broadens this perspective, serving as an innate mental mode that enhances awareness and attention, demonstrating that mindfulness is not solely developed through formal practice but is an intrinsic capability of the mind. Transcript: Speaker 1 But if we are walking down a darkened path and we’re pointing the flashlight toward where we want to walk it, it’s goal-directed attention, right? So sort of executive control and this kind of capacity to select are working together. If you hear of rustling, what’s going to happen? You’re going to get captured by it. The flashlight, even without much preparation, is going to be pointing to something else, probably where you thought you heard the noise come from. So not only is it endogenous or controlled, but it can be exogenous and captured by things that are happening in our environment. And this flashlight can be pointed to internal mental content, and can also be captured by internal mental content. So if I ask you to remember what you had for dinner last night, in some sense, what you’re doing is recalling the episode of last night’s events, pointing the flashlight to the granular Time period of dinner, maybe even visualizing what you had and pulling that out so you have more access to that information. Or it could be captured by a thought, like, oh shoot, did I leave my faucet running or whatever it might be. So I think that the internal-extral domain, as well as this multiplicity of how we spotlight information, is important to think about. Now, the excitement for me regarding mindfulness is that it seemed to cover a lot of this terrain. And the way that I would describe mindfulness sort of most broadly is that it’s a mental mode, a way of making the mind. It’s an intrinsic capacity. You don’t get mindful only by practicing mindfulness meditation. You hold this in what you possess in your mind. (Time 0:20:06)