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Watching the mind travel: Understanding internal distraction from our own involuntary thoughts

观察心灵的旅行：了解我们自己不自觉的想法造成的内部干扰

基本信息

批准号：
ES/W007320/1
负责人：
Sophie Charlotte Forster
金额：
$ 30.88万
依托单位：
University of Sussex
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW007320%2F1
关键词：
Watching mind travel Understanding internal

项目摘要

At any given moment, our brains are making choices about what to focus on - a process called selective attention. These choices are necessary because we are constantly exposed to an enormous amount of information, which vastly exceeds our brain's processing capacity. However, sometimes our brains appear to make the wrong choices. For example, while trying complete an urgent work task, we may find our attention has switched, against our will, to thinking about our lunch plans. A driver may be distracted by a passer-by and miss a red traffic light. A school child may be distracted by thoughts about an argument with a friend and miss a key part of their lesson. Regardless of the source of distraction, the consequences for task performance are the same: When we are distracted our ability to learn, work, drive or do any other task is seriously compromised.Industries are built around attempts to minimize distraction, typically targeting the environment (e.g. noise-cancelling headphones). However, this will not work when the distraction comes from our own thoughts, as is the case much of the time. Beyond their disruptive impact on tasks, involuntary thoughts cause further harm through their capacity to expose us to information we would prefer to avoid: A person trying to sleep may find their thoughts returning, against their will, to a work-related situation. A recovering alcoholic might stay away from bars but be unable to escape thoughts about drinking. A person may be intensely distressed by unwanted thoughts or imagery relating to a past trauma. From the disruptive distracting thoughts experienced in daily life, the disturbing intrusive thoughts associated with anxiety disorders, to the tempting thoughts associated with addiction, all these experiences have in common the underlying phenomenon of an involuntary thought. We lack a fundamental understanding of what causes involuntary thoughts to happen. In other words, how does a particular piece of information from our minds suddenly hijack our consciousness? Decades of research into selective attention have given us a rich insight into the causes of distraction by external information (e.g., sights, sounds). Surprisingly, this field has almost entirely neglected the topic of distraction by our own involuntary thoughts - limiting the ability of selective attention models to explain real world distraction. This omission is likely due to methodological barriers - the uncontrollable, unpredictable and subjective nature of involuntary thoughts means they cannot easily be studied using traditional approaches. However, advances in neuroimaging techniques open up the exciting opportunity to fill this gap in the literature and build a comprehensive understanding of the causes of distraction from all sources. The proposed research will use a novel neuroimaging approach, combined with behavioural experiments, to develop and test a new model of internal distraction by involuntary thoughts. The neuroimaging approach involves planting a specific thought in people's minds, before they perform an unrelated task: Pilot data show that specific involuntary thoughts can be tracked through their unique neural signature. By studying the communication between these 'marker' thoughts and other brain regions, we can identify the networks involved in involuntary thoughts. Behavioural experiments will test which types of thought are most distracting, and how these vary from person to person. Using this approach, we will test whether what we know about how the brain selects sensory information - and we know a lot - might apply to predict how our minds choose our thoughts. Understanding how our brains cause involuntary thoughts is a fundamental stepping stone that in the longer term can help us to explain - and ultimately predict, control or prevent - their negative, sometimes disastrous, consequences for education, productivity, health and safety, and mental health.

在任何特定的时刻，我们的大脑都在选择关注什么--这个过程被称为选择性注意。这些选择是必要的，因为我们不断地接触到大量的信息，这些信息远远超过了我们大脑的处理能力。然而，有时我们的大脑似乎会做出错误的选择。例如，当我们试图完成一项紧急的工作任务时，我们可能会发现我们的注意力已经违背我们的意愿，转而考虑我们的午餐计划。司机可能会被路人分心，错过了红灯。一个学校的孩子可能会被与朋友争论的想法分散注意力，错过了他们课程的关键部分。无论分心的来源是什么，对任务表现的影响都是一样的：当我们分心时，我们的学习、工作、驾驶或其他任何任务的能力都会受到严重影响。工业界都试图将分心最小化，通常针对环境（例如降噪耳机）。然而，当分心来自我们自己的想法时，这将不起作用，就像大多数时候的情况一样。除了对任务的破坏性影响外，无意识的想法还通过使我们接触到我们宁愿避免的信息而造成进一步的伤害：一个试图睡觉的人可能会发现他们的想法违背他们的意愿，回到与工作有关的情况。一个正在康复的酒鬼可能会远离酒吧，但无法摆脱喝酒的想法。一个人可能会被与过去创伤有关的不必要的想法或图像所强烈困扰。从日常生活中体验到的破坏性分心思想，与焦虑症相关的令人不安的侵入性思想，到与成瘾相关的诱惑性思想，所有这些经历都有一个共同的潜在现象，即无意识思想。我们缺乏对是什么导致无意识思维发生的基本理解。换句话说，来自我们大脑的一条特定信息是如何突然劫持我们的意识的？几十年来对选择性注意力的研究使我们对外部信息（例如，景象、声音）。令人惊讶的是，这一领域几乎完全忽略了我们自己的无意识思想分心的话题-限制了选择性注意模型解释真实的世界分心的能力。这种遗漏可能是由于方法上的障碍--无意识思维的不可控、不可预测和主观性意味着它们不容易用传统方法进行研究。然而，神经影像学技术的进步为填补文献中的这一空白提供了令人兴奋的机会，并从所有来源全面了解分心的原因。这项拟议中的研究将使用一种新的神经成像方法，结合行为实验，开发和测试一种新的由非自愿思想引起的内部分心模型。神经成像方法涉及在人们执行不相关的任务之前在他们的头脑中植入特定的想法：试点数据显示，特定的无意识想法可以通过其独特的神经信号进行跟踪。通过研究这些“标记”思想与其他大脑区域之间的通信，我们可以识别参与无意识思想的网络。行为实验将测试哪种类型的想法最容易分散注意力，以及这些想法如何因人而异。使用这种方法，我们将测试我们所知道的关于大脑如何选择感官信息的知识-我们知道很多-是否可以应用于预测我们的思想如何选择我们的想法。了解我们的大脑如何引起非自愿的想法是一个基本的垫脚石，从长远来看，可以帮助我们解释-并最终预测，控制或预防-它们对教育，生产力，健康和安全以及心理健康的负面，有时是灾难性的后果。