Enhancing attention through training

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Highlights

  • Attention involves specific brain networks.

  • Attentional networks can be improved by practice.

  • Meditation and physical exercise change brain states and improve some forms of attention.

  • Mindfulness combats mind wandering.

  • Smoking addiction improves with mindfulness training.

Attention can be improved by repetition of a specific task that involves an attention network (network training), or by exercise or meditation that changes the brain state (state training). We first review the concept of attention networks that link changes in orienting, alerting and executive control to brain networks. Network training through video games or computer exercises can improve aspects of attention. The extent of transfer beyond the trained task is a controversial issue. Mindfulness is a form of meditation that keeps attention focused on the current moment. Some forms of meditation have been shown to improve executive attention reduce stress and produce specific brain changes. Additional research is needed to understand the limits and mechanisms of these effects.

Introduction

We consider two brain training strategies to improve attention and other cognitive functions [1••]. Network training involves practice of a cognitive task thought to exercise specific brain networks related to attention. State training, on the other hand, uses practice designed to develop a brain state that may influence attention and other networks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. State training also involves networks, but it is does not include cognitive tasks designed specifically to train a network. Both aerobic exercise and meditation training can establish a state that appears to improve cognition, attention and mood [1••].

Section snippets

Training attention networks

Since attention involves a number of neural networks with different functions [7] there are many ways to improve one or more of these functions and thereby improve the efficiency of the network. Some of the cues for dissociations between attentional functions arise from studies of brain injury using the Attention Network Test (ANT) to classify patients. The ANT (see Fig. 1) is a cognitive task built around the flanker effect and designed to provide separate measurement of the alerting,

Training brain states

A number of methods have been proposed for training a brain state that will foster attention and self regulation [1••]. Exposure to nature has been shown to be a useful method to improve attention [1••], and aerobic exercise has been shown in many studies to have broad effects on cognition including attention [6]. Meditation is a mental method that has the most similarities to the network training discussed above. In understanding the training of attention it is important to consider the way

Longitudinal studies

A series of meditation training studies have compared one week of integrated body mind training (IBMT), a version of mindfulness meditation, with an active control group given relaxation training 3, 37, 38] The groups are randomly assigned. IBMT uses most of the methods of other mindfulness training including maintaining attention in the present without judgment and use of instruction to promote a state of high concentration on the present with minimal mind wandering. Relaxation training

Clinical studies

Many physical and mental disorders involve deficits of attention [48], so an important goal of training attention is to treat disorders. There are correlations between the executive attention network and self control or self regulation in children and adults [49]. Since addictions have been related to deficits in self regulation [50] they are a natural target for such studies.

One such study has involved smoking addiction [51••], but unlike most such studies participants were not committed to

Future issues

Training brain networks and changing brain states have both proven effective in some studies as a means of improving attention. For network training, the degree of transfer to remote tasks remains an important issue. The claims that training in a single task improves vast areas of cognition seems to be unjustified. However, effort to train a set of tasks that might together make a more general improvement in attention and cognition remains a possibility.

State training does not involve a single

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research grant to the University of Oregon and by the National Institute of Health grant HD060563 to Georgia State University.

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