Directed attention fatigue

Last updated

Directed attention fatigue (DAF) is a neuro-psychological phenomenon that results from overuse of the brain's inhibitory attention mechanisms, which handle incoming distractions while maintaining focus on a specific task. The greatest threat to a given focus of attention is competition from other stimuli that can cause a shift in focus. This is because one maintains focus on a particular thought by inhibiting all potential distractions and not by strengthening that central mental activity. [1] [ page needed ] Directed attention fatigue occurs when a particular part of the brain's global inhibitory system is overworked due to the suppression of increasing numbers of stimuli. This temporary condition is not a clinical illness or a personality disorder. It is rather a temporary fatigue of the inhibitory mechanisms in the brain. [2] [ unreliable medical source? ] According to inhibition theory, it is natural for one to alternate between periods of attention and distraction. Although one's efforts may involve very different tasks, each incoming stimulus calls upon the same directed attention mechanism.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Symptoms and signs

Extreme levels of mental fatigue lead to an inability to perform regular tasks and irritability. Studies that require participants to carry out attention-demanding tasks under conditions of high distraction reveal how unpleasant a mentally fatigued person can be. After exposure to such an experience, individuals are less likely to help someone in need. They are also more aggressive, less tolerant, and less sensitive to socially important cues. Fatigue that is experienced by participants of these kinds of studies is induced by attention-intensive tasks, [3] and the observed effects of such fatigue are correlated with decline in inhibitory control. Signs of Directed Attention Fatigue include temporarily feeling unusually distractible, impatient, forgetful, or cranky when there is no associated illness. In more severe forms, it can lead to bad judgment, apathy, or accidents, and can contribute to increased stress levels.[ citation needed ]

There are 6 major areas of mental processing that are affected during onset of DAF, which are as follows: [4]

  1. Input — One may experience misperception and miss social cues.
  2. Thinking — One may experience feelings of restlessness, confusion, forgetfulness and/or decreased metacognition.
  3. Behavior — One may experience feelings of impulsiveness and recklessness, and may find that they have a diminished level of threshold between thoughts and actions. One may also act out-of-character.
  4. Executive Functioning — One may experience an inability to plan and make appropriate decisions and may experience impaired judgment ability.
  5. Emotions — One may experience being short-tempered and feelings of unpleasantness.
  6. Social Interactions — One may experience heightened irritability and increased frequency of antisocial feelings.

Overlap of symptoms from the six above categories is highly indicative of Directed Attention Fatigue.

The symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder closely mirror the symptoms of Directed Attention Fatigue. Like Directed Attention Fatigue, ADHD involves the prefrontal cortex. Specifically, the right prefrontal cortex is less active among children with ADHD. Experimentation has shown that the severity of ADHD symptoms can be correlated to the degree of asymmetry between blood flow in the left and right prefrontal cortex. [5] [ non-primary source needed ] It is possible that DAF and ADHD involve disruption of the same underlying mechanism, and recent clinical evidence has found that the same treatments used for Directed Attention Fatigue may reduce the symptoms of ADHD in children. [6] [ non-primary source needed ] However, it is important to note that unlike ADHD, DAF is a temporary condition rather than a clinical disorder.[ citation needed ]

Cause

The onset of directed attention fatigue can be triggered by a number of activities, all of which involve use of the brain's inhibitory system. Activities that engage this system include multitasking, working in an environment with disruptive background noise or after a lack of sleep, and rapidly changing focus during a prolonged period of attention. DAF can also be brought about by performing concentration-intensive tasks such as puzzle-solving or learning unfamiliar ideas. External factors such as stress resulting from emergencies, exams or work deadlines can also induce DAF. Any illness or injury to the brain that interrupts the brain circuits involved in maintaining attention and inhibiting external stimuli may also contribute to the development of directed attention fatigue.

Anatomy

Directed attention, or voluntary attention, requires a great deal of concentration and focus, and is employed in tasks such as problem solving. This type of attention employs the inhibitory mechanisms of the brain, which help block incoming stimuli that are unrelated to the task at hand. [7] Several parts of the brain are involved in maintaining directed attention, primarily those located in the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe of the brain. Specifically, the mechanism of directed attention employs the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the brain stem's basal ganglia. Some fMRI studies have shown that directed attention involves changes in the anterior cingulate cortex and the lateral prefrontal cortex, perhaps as a consequence of increased connectivity between these two areas. [8] Evidence also suggests that the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) plays a specialized role in response inhibition. It seems that this region plays a key role in the integration of bottom-up response-related information and facilitates goal-directed behavior. [9] [ non-primary source needed ] While these areas of the brain are known to be involved in DAF, their specific molecular mechanisms in the perpetuation of DAF symptoms are not yet known.[ citation needed ]

Diagnosis

Differential diagnosis

The concept of stress is used in many situations that would be described as mental fatigue, but the two concepts are distinctly different. Stress involves preparation for an anticipated event that has been evaluated as being threatening or harmful. Though mental fatigue may well result from stressful circumstances, it also arises out of hard work on a project one enjoys. In such cases, there is no anticipation of threat or harm present but still the result is fatigue. Characteristic of mental fatigue is difficulty focusing. For a mentally fatigued person, paying attention to something uninteresting is burdensome, even though focusing on something of great interest poses no particular challenge. [10] [ page needed ] Hence, there are two types of attention, distinguished in terms of the effort involved in their use and their changes in attentional shift:

  1. Involuntary attention refers to attention that requires no effort at all, as when something exciting or interesting happens.[ citation needed ]
  2. Voluntary attention, or directed attention, refers to attention that requires a great deal of effort, as when something is monotonous or boring. [11] [ page needed ]

Treatment

There are measures that can be taken in order to reduce the impact of DAF. These include reducing the number of distractions present in one's external environment, trying to clear one's mind of any internal distractions and taking short breaks during prolonged periods of focus. Directed attention fatigue can be reduced by getting a sufficient amount of sleep each night, because inhibitory attention chemicals are replenished during sleep. [12] [ unreliable medical source? ]

An aesthetic environment may also serve a restorative function in fostering recovery from mental fatigue. Research has shown that restorative experiences, such as clearing one's head and reflecting on one's life and priorities, may help combat Directed Attention Fatigue. As investigated by attention restoration theory, natural environments, such as forests, mountain landscapes or beaches, appear to be particularly effective for restoring attention, perhaps because they contain a vast amount of diverse, relatively weak stimuli, thus inciting the mind to wander freely while relaxing its strict focus. [13]

Research

Ongoing research is examining ways in which the incidence of DAF can be decreased, and suggests that exposure to the natural environment may aid in the reduction of DAF symptoms. A number of researchers have investigated Directed Attention Fatigue recently. Leading contributors include Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, environmental psychologists at the University of Michigan. Rachel and Stephen Kaplan are credited with much of the research relating to Directed Attention Fatigue and were the first to discover that extended periods of focused attention can lead to DAF. Their research suggests that Directed Attention Fatigue can be alleviated with exposure to nature. Together, the Kaplans devised the Attention restoration theory (ART), which states that a person is better able to maintain focused directed attention after spending time in the natural environment.

A number of studies have been performed that specifically focus on Directed Attention Fatigue experienced by cancer patients. Such studies suggests that the DAF experienced by cancer patients following surgery improves significantly through outdoor restorative activities for 20 minutes per day. [14] [ unreliable medical source? ]

Similarly, it has been discovered that even brief amounts of time spent on a busy metropolitan street can affect one's ability to maintain focus on a given task. Experimental findings suggest that spending time in a natural environment or even looking at pictures of nature can improve maintenance of directed attention. [15] [ unreliable medical source? ]

The Landscape and Human Health Laboratory (LHHL) has completed studies examining the complex relationship between people and their environment. Researchers here discovered the correlation between Directed Attention Fatigue, irritability and aggression. Their findings suggest that people deprived of the restorative effects of nature display more aggressive qualities. Results also demonstrate that communities with several trees and other natural areas tend to be stronger, safer and house residents with a higher attention level.[ citation needed ] More recent experimentation done at the LHHL suggests that children possessing attention deficits increase their attention level after walking outdoors. [16] [ unreliable medical source? ]

According to this and much other research[ which? ] that has been performed regarding directed attention fatigue, the brain's ability to maintain directed attention is heightened after exposure to nature.

See also

Related Research Articles

Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, but some theorists consider the two forms of memory distinct, assuming that working memory allows for the manipulation of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to the short-term storage of information. Working memory is a theoretical concept central to cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</span> Neurodevelopmental disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by executive dysfunction occasioning symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inappropriate.

Attention is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is a process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective. William James (1890) wrote that "Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence." Attention has also been described as the allocation of limited cognitive processing resources. Attention is manifested by an attentional bottleneck, in terms of the amount of data the brain can process each second; for example, in human vision, only less than 1% of the visual input data can enter the bottleneck, leading to inattentional blindness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dopaminergic pathways</span> Projection neurons in the brain that synthesize and release dopamine

Dopaminergic pathways in the human brain are involved in both physiological and behavioral processes including movement, cognition, executive functions, reward, motivation, and neuroendocrine control. Each pathway is a set of projection neurons, consisting of individual dopaminergic neurons.

Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment.

Affective neuroscience is the study of how the brain processes emotions. This field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. The basis of emotions and what emotions are remains an issue of debate within the field of affective neuroscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive functions</span> Cognitive processes necessary for control of behavior

In cognitive science and neuropsychology, executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals. Executive functions include basic cognitive processes such as attentional control, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Higher-order executive functions require the simultaneous use of multiple basic executive functions and include planning and fluid intelligence.

Tranquillity is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism—where the term passaddhi refers to tranquillity of the body, thoughts, and consciousness on the path to enlightenment—to an assortment of policy and planning guidance documents, where interpretation of the word is typically linked to engagement with the natural environment. It is also famously used in the Preamble to the United States Constitution, which describes one of the purposes for which the document was establishing the government as to "insure domestic Tranquility".

Utilization behavior (UB) is a type of neurobehavioral phenomena that involves someone grabbing objects in view and starting the 'appropriate' behavior associated with it at an 'inappropriate' time. Patients exhibiting utilization behavior have difficulty resisting the impulse to operate or manipulate objects which are in their visual field and within reach. Characteristics of UB include unintentional, unconscious actions triggered by the immediate environment. The unpreventable excessive behavior has been linked to lesions in the frontal lobe. UB has also been referred to as "bilateral magnetic apraxia" and "hypermetamorphosis".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negative priming</span> Initial stimulus inhibits response to subsequent stimulus

Negative priming is an implicit memory effect in which prior exposure to a stimulus unfavorably influences the response to the same stimulus. It falls under the category of priming, which refers to the change in the response towards a stimulus due to a subconscious memory effect. Negative priming describes the slow and error-prone reaction to a stimulus that is previously ignored. For example, a subject may be imagined trying to pick a red pen from a pen holder. The red pen becomes the target of attention, so the subject responds by moving their hand towards it. At this time, they mentally block out all other pens as distractors to aid in closing in on just the red pen. After repeatedly picking the red pen over the others, switching to the blue pen results in a momentary delay picking the pen out. The slow reaction due to the change of the distractor stimulus to target stimulus is called the negative priming effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synaptic gating</span>

Synaptic gating is the ability of neural circuits to gate inputs by either suppressing or facilitating specific synaptic activity. Selective inhibition of certain synapses has been studied thoroughly, and recent studies have supported the existence of permissively gated synaptic transmission. In general, synaptic gating involves a mechanism of central control over neuronal output. It includes a sort of gatekeeper neuron, which has the ability to influence transmission of information to selected targets independently of the parts of the synapse upon which it exerts its action.

In psychology and neuroscience, executive dysfunction, or executive function deficit, is a disruption to the efficacy of the executive functions, which is a group of cognitive processes that regulate, control, and manage other cognitive processes. Executive dysfunction can refer to both neurocognitive deficits and behavioural symptoms. It is implicated in numerous psychopathologies and mental disorders, as well as short-term and long-term changes in non-clinical executive control. Executive dysfunction is the mechanism underlying ADHD Paralysis, and in a broader context, it can encompass other cognitive difficulties like planning, organizing, initiating tasks and regulating emotions. It is a core characteristic of ADHD and can elucidate numerous other recognized symptoms.

Attention restoration theory (ART) asserts that people can concentrate better after spending time in nature, or even looking at scenes of nature. Natural environments abound with "soft fascinations" which a person can reflect upon in "effortless attention", such as clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze or water bubbling over rocks in a stream. Philosophically, nature has long been seen as a source of peace and energy, yet the scientific community started rigorous testing only as recently as the 1990s which has allowed scientific and accurate comments to be made about if nature has a restorative attribute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inhibitory control</span> Cognitive process

Inhibitory control, also known as response inhibition, is a cognitive process – and, more specifically, an executive function – that permits an individual to inhibit their impulses and natural, habitual, or dominant behavioral responses to stimuli in order to select a more appropriate behavior that is consistent with completing their goals. Self-control is an important aspect of inhibitory control. For example, successfully suppressing the natural behavioral response to eat cake when one is craving it while dieting requires the use of inhibitory control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childhood memory</span> Early life experiences often memorable for life

Childhood memory refers to memories formed during childhood. Among its other roles, memory functions to guide present behaviour and to predict future outcomes. Memory in childhood is qualitatively and quantitatively different from the memories formed and retrieved in late adolescence and the adult years. Childhood memory research is relatively recent in relation to the study of other types of cognitive processes underpinning behaviour. Understanding the mechanisms by which memories in childhood are encoded and later retrieved has important implications in many areas. Research into childhood memory includes topics such as childhood memory formation and retrieval mechanisms in relation to those in adults, controversies surrounding infantile amnesia and the fact that adults have relatively poor memories of early childhood, the ways in which school environment and family environment influence memory, and the ways in which memory can be improved in childhood to improve overall cognition, performance in school, and well-being, both in childhood and in adulthood.

Cognitive inhibition refers to the mind's ability to tune out stimuli that are irrelevant to the task/process at hand or to the mind's current state. Additionally, it can be done either in whole or in part, intentionally or otherwise. Cognitive inhibition in particular can be observed in many instances throughout specific areas of cognitive science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypofrontality</span>

Hypofrontality is a state of decreased cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Hypofrontality is symptomatic of several neurological medical conditions, such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. This condition was initially described by Ingvar and Franzén in 1974, through the use of xenon blood flow technique with 32 detectors to image the brains of patients with schizophrenia. This finding was confirmed in subsequent studies using the improved spatial resolution of positron emission tomography with the fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) tracer. Subsequent neuroimaging work has shown that the decreases in prefrontal CBF are localized to the medial, lateral, and orbital portions of the prefrontal cortex. Hypofrontality is thought to contribute to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mechanisms of mindfulness meditation</span>

Mindfulness has been defined in modern psychological terms as "paying attention to relevant aspects of experience in a nonjudgmental manner", and maintaining attention on present moment experience with an attitude of openness and acceptance. Meditation is a platform used to achieve mindfulness. Both practices, mindfulness and meditation, have been "directly inspired from the Buddhist tradition" and have been widely promoted by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to have a positive impact on several psychiatric problems such as depression and therefore has formed the basis of mindfulness programs such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based pain management. The applications of mindfulness meditation are well established, however the mechanisms that underlie this practice are yet to be fully understood. Many tests and studies on soldiers with PTSD have shown tremendous positive results in decreasing stress levels and being able to cope with problems of the past, paving the way for more tests and studies to normalize and accept mindful based meditation and research, not only for soldiers with PTSD, but numerous mental inabilities or disabilities.

The neurocircuitry that underlies executive function processes and emotional and motivational processes are known to be distinct in the brain. However, there are brain regions that show overlap in function between the two cognitive systems. Brain regions that exist in both systems are interesting mainly for studies on how one system affects the other. Examples of such cross-modal functions are emotional regulation strategies such as emotional suppression and emotional reappraisal, the effect of mood on cognitive tasks, and the effect of emotional stimulation of cognitive tasks.

Affect labeling is an implicit emotional regulation strategy that can be simply described as "putting feelings into words". Specifically, it refers to the idea that explicitly labeling one's, typically negative, emotional state results in a reduction of the conscious experience, physiological response, and/or behavior resulting from that emotional state. For example, writing about a negative experience in one's journal may improve one's mood. Some other examples of affect labeling include discussing one's feelings with a therapist, complaining to friends about a negative experience, posting one's feelings on social media or acknowledging the scary aspects of a situation.

References

  1. Itti L, Geraint R, Tsotsos JK, eds. (2005). Neurobiology of Attention. Boston: Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN   978-0-12-375731-9. OCLC   58724292.
  2. Beadle S. "Directed Attention Fatigue and Restoration". Troutfoot.com. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  3. Lin H, Saunders B, Friese M, Evans NJ, Inzlicht M (May 2020). "Strong Effort Manipulations Reduce Response Caution: A Preregistered Reinvention of the Ego-Depletion Paradigm". Psychological Science. 31 (5): 531–547. doi:10.1177/0956797620904990. PMC   7238509 . PMID   32315259.
  4. Kaplan S, Berman MG (January 2010). "Directed Attention as a Common Resource for Executive Functioning and Self-Regulation". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 5 (1): 43–57. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.589.9322 . doi:10.1177/1745691609356784. PMID   26162062. S2CID   4992335.
  5. Glosser G, Goodglass H (August 1990). "Disorders in executive control functions among aphasic and other brain-damaged patients". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 12 (4): 485–501. doi:10.1080/01688639008400995. PMID   1698809.
  6. Kuo FE, Taylor AF (September 2004). "A potential natural treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: evidence from a national study". American Journal of Public Health. 94 (9): 1580–6. doi:10.2105/ajph.94.9.1580. PMC   1448497 . PMID   15333318.
  7. Jaffe E (May 2010). "This side of paradise: discovering why the human mind needs nature". Observer. 23 (5).
  8. Posner MI, Sheese BE, Odludaş Y, Tang Y (November 2006). "Analyzing and shaping human attentional networks". Neural Networks. 19 (9): 1422–9. doi:10.1016/j.neunet.2006.08.004. PMID   17059879.
  9. Dodds CM, Morein-Zamir S, Robbins TW (May 2011). "Dissociating inhibition, attention, and response control in the frontoparietal network using functional magnetic resonance imaging". Cerebral Cortex. 21 (5): 1155–65. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhq187. PMC   3077432 . PMID   20923963. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  10. Pfaff DW, Kieffer BL, eds. (2008). Molecular and Biophysical Mechanisms of Arousal, Alertness, and Attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Vol. 1129. Boston: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN   978-1-57331-703-0. OCLC   229430529.
  11. Kaplan R, Kaplan S (1989). The experience of nature: A psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-34939-0. OCLC   18814094.
  12. "Directed attention fatigue". Bio-Medicine. Archived from the original on 2011-09-14. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  13. Kaplan S (July 2001). "Meditation, restoration, and the management of mental fatigue". Environment and Behavior. 33 (4): 480–506. doi:10.1177/00139160121973106. S2CID   7194754.
  14. Lofy J (Fall 2006). "A Walk in the Woods". Michigan Today. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  15. Nauert R (17 November 2010). "Brain fatigue from living in the city?". PsychCentral. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  16. Kuo FE. "Current Research". Landscape and Human Health Laboratory. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved 13 March 2011.