Attention in Dynamic and Individualized Contexts

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From finding an apple in the fridge to noticing a traffic signal change to red, how we pay attention to the world around us is vital to everyday life. Studied from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, research on attention has long focused on describing the basic systems we have in our brains for selecting and prioritizing what sensory information to channel to our higher-level, capacity-limited processing resources in cortex. Towards advancing our understanding in this regard, the goal of my proposal is to explore how our attentional engagement with the external world naturally ebbs and flows over time, and what factors contribute to individual variability in these attentional dynamics. My proposal has three complimentary objectives. The first concerns mind wandering, or how our thoughts often drift away from our on-going task at hand. We now know that when we mind wander, our attention to the outside world dramatically falls off. A new set of studies more carefully characterizes these ebbs and flows in our attentional states, and examines whether they extend to other periods of inward-directed thought, such as when recalling a memory or reasoning through a problem. The second objective concerns how attention is impacted by physical activity. While we know that single bouts of exercise and long-term exercise habits can boost cognition, we have just found that attentional function also positively varies with one's weekly levels of physical activity. A second set of studies builds on this by examining how individual variability in everyday physical activity levels impacts both attention and brain function. Finally, the third objective concerns understanding individual variability in attentional sensitivities or visual "triggers". In particular, we have recently confirmed that more than 30% of UBC students report having aversive responses to seeing the fidgeting behaviors of others. A final set of studies examines this phenomenon more closely by combining subjective attentional reports with objective, behavior- and brain-based measures of attentional function. Importantly, my proposal doesn't just address open issues in basic research, but it has the potential to benefit all Canadians through its clinical and public health implications. What we learn about mind wandering can help to better understand mental health challenges such as depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. What we learn about physical activity and its impacts on attention can help nudge people towards more health-positive lifestyle choices. And in studying attentional sensitivities, we are validating an unrecognized problem many have heretofore been silently enduring. But taken together, the research doesn't just promise to help advance basic neurocognitive science and fuel its clinical/health applications, but the scope of the projects themselves represent an outstanding opportunity for training the next generation of Canadian cognitive neuroscientists.