Our five sensory organs are constantly receiving information from the environment. To analyze all this information more efficiently, our brains have developed the ability to prioritize and focus only on information that is relevant to achieving a current goal. This ability is called attention.
Importantly, focusing only on relevant information implies actively blocking irrelevant information.
Let’s imagine you have an exam tomorrow and you decide to read a book on the subject. The information you are receiving from the book is relevant for achieving your goal of passing the exam, whereas all other information that may enter your mind while you are reading is irrelevant. For example, you may suddenly remember that you need to visit your doctor, or loud noises from outside may distract you. In such cases, your attention will block irrelevant signals and thoughts and bring your focus back to the book. So, when you are reading, your brain is not only trying to understand and memorize what you have read, but it is also actively evaluating and filtering out irrelevant signals. This is an energy-consuming process that is difficult to maintain for a long time. Eventually, at some point, your attention will be depleted, and you will need to take a rest.
Another important feature of attention is that it must be flexible because you may have several competing goals, and their priorities may change over time. Sometimes, it is necessary to shift your attention from one task to another. For example, imagine you were preparing for the exam, but then you smell something burning. In this case, the goal of being safe will override the goal of passing the exam, and making sure there is no fire in your house becomes more important. That is why the focus of your attention will shift away from reading to searching for the source of the smell.
In summary, remember that depending on your most important goal at the moment, all information that enters your mind is sorted as relevant or irrelevant to achieving that goal. Attention is the ability to focus on relevant information while blocking irrelevant information. However, the relevance of information may change when your goals change, so the focus of attention will also shift with your goals. Therefore, when you find it difficult to focus on some activity, it may be because that activity is not relevant to your main goal, or you don’t know which goal is more important.
Now let’s look at the pathology of attention. The pathology of attention includes two types of symptoms: impaired ability to initiate or maintain focus and symptoms of impaired ability to shift attention from one task to another.
Here is a brief description of these symptoms:
• The first one is called aprosexia, which is characterized by a general inability to focus attention on any information, regardless of its relevance. This symptom is usually observed when there is reduced activation of the central nervous system. It may happen due to intoxication with sedative substances like alcohol or drugs, after a head injury, or in severe dementia.
• The next symptom is called hypermetamorphosis of attention, which is the opposite of aprosexia. In this symptom, there is an impaired ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant signals. A person pays attention to every detail and every new stimulus. This symptom is usually observed in conditions characterized by hyperactivation of the central nervous system, for example, in manic disorder, intoxication with psychostimulants, and sometimes in the early stages of psychosis.
• The next symptom is pathological distractibility. In this case, people can discriminate between relevant and irrelevant signals but have difficulties with the voluntary initiation of focusing only on relevant signals. They cannot start blocking irrelevant signals. This symptom is usually observed in people with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
• Another symptom is called exhaustibility of attention. In this case, patients can voluntarily focus on relevant information, but their attention quickly runs out. This symptom is also characteristic of patients with ADHD but can also develop as a result of burnout, lack of sleep, or cognitive overexertion. It can also be found in patients recovering from a head injury or other severe somatic diseases.
• Finally, the last symptom is called rigidity of attention. In this symptom, there is an impaired ability to swiftly change the focus of attention between different tasks. It can be observed in patients with epilepsy, after traumatic brain injury, and in dementias.
That is all I wanted to say today about attention. We will come back to this topic when we discuss ADHD, the incidence of which has greatly increased in recent years.
In summary, remember that attention consists of two parallel processes: the selection of relevant information and the active suppression of irrelevant information. It is an energy-consuming process, and attention has limits. To keep your attention for longer, try to minimize distractions—switch off your phone, focus on one task at a time, and take breaks periodically. Also, attention can be improved by meditation. When meditating, you focus your attention on your breathing. When the focus of attention shifts away from breathing to something else, you simply bring it back to breathing. It’s an exercise, just like physical exercise. It can be difficult at the beginning, but it will get easier. When you start lifting weights in the gym, you begin with small dumbbells, and as your muscles get stronger, you move on to heavier weights. The same is true for meditation. In the beginning, you might be able to focus for only a minute or less, but with regular practice, your ability to stay focused will improve.