Summary: Do you find yourself constantly sidetracked by notifications or fleeting thoughts? It might be a fundamental feature of your biology. A new study reveals that human attention isn’t a steady beam, but a flickering rhythm that shifts seven to ten times per second.
This rhythmic pulsing was likely an evolutionary survival mechanism, allowing our ancestors to scan for predators while foraging. However, in our modern world of smartphones and constant digital alerts, these innate “windows of distraction” make us highly vulnerable to losing focus on complex tasks.
Key Facts
- The Attention Cycle: Attention shifts 7–10 times every second, creating regular “windows” where we are more likely to notice something new in our environment.
- Evolutionary Roots: This trait allowed ancestors to maintain “cognitive flexibility”—monitoring for threats while simultaneously focusing on a primary goal like finding food.
- Modern Vulnerability: Digital notifications and screens exploit these natural rhythmic shifts, making it physically harder to maintain prolonged focus in a modern office or study setting.
- ADHD Connection: Researchers suggest that individuals with ADHD may have brain rhythms that don’t alternate as frequently, potentially explaining both hyper-focus and extreme distractibility.
- Internal Shifts: Using EEG, the study confirmed these shifts are internal brain processes and do not require actual eye movement to occur.
Source: University of Rochester
Scientists may have new answers to why pop-ups or notifications grab our attention. Turns out our attention is on a cycle, shifting seven to ten times per second.
This rhythmic occurrence may be crucial for survival, as it prevents us from becoming overly focused on one thing in our environment. It could help us to see a car backing up in a parking lot while we search for where we parked, or to duck to avoid a low-hanging tree branch on a walk while watching a kid ride a bike.
But these windows that shift our attention could also make us more susceptible to distractions, especially in modern times.
As we live in a world surrounded by screens, digital alerts, and other visual stimuli, these frequent and innate windows for shifting attention may make it easier to be pulled away from a task.
“For our ancestors who had to continue to monitor the environment for predators while foraging for food, this was a beneficial trait,” said Ian Fiebelkorn, PhD, assistant professor of Neuroscience at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester and senior author of a study out in the journal PLOS Biology.
“But in our modern environment, with laptops open in front of us and a smartphone nearby, rhythmically occurring windows for beneficial attentional shifts might also work against us. That is, rhythmically occurring windows for attentional shifts are also associated with increased susceptibility to distracting information.”
Uncovering What Cannot Be Seen
These shifts in attention can occur hundreds of thousands of times each day. Zach Redding, PhD ’24, a postdoctoral fellow in the Fiebelkorn lab and the first author of the study, used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor brain signals.
The 40 participants were asked to focus on a dim grey square at the center of a computer screen, while colored dots served as distractors. Any tracked eye movements were excluded from the data, ensuring that the findings reflected internal shifts in attention rather than where participants were looking.
The EEG recordings revealed rhythmic patterns when attention was most likely to shift towards a distractor. These rhythmic shifts in attention occurred about seven to ten times per second and were linked to the participants’ alternating windows of better and worse target detection.
When the participants showed worse target detection, researchers found they were more susceptible to the distractors.
This finding, if applied to other populations like people with ADHD, could provide a glimpse into what may cause someone to be hyper-focused or have increased distractibility.
“Our research shows that the typical brain rhythmically alternates between states that promote either increased processing at the present focus of attention or an increased likelihood of shifting attentional resources elsewhere,” said Fiebelkorn.
“It could be that the brains of people with ADHD do not alternate between these states as often, resulting in a loss of cognitive flexibility.” This research could eventually be key to developing new strategies to improve focus.
Other authors include Yun Ding, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the Fiebelkorn lab.
Funding: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Searle Scholars Program.
Key Questions Answered:
A: Because your brain is literally designed not to. Every second, your brain takes about 7 to 10 “mini-breaks” to scan your surroundings. This kept your ancestors from being eaten by predators, but today, it just makes you click on that pop-up notification.
A: It’s a strong possibility. The researchers believe that in ADHD, the brain might get “stuck” in one state or not cycle between focus and scanning at the typical rate, which can lead to either being unable to pull away from a task (hyper-focus) or being too easily pulled away by the environment.
A: While you can’t stop the innate pulsing of your neurons, understanding these rhythms could lead to new types of “attention training” or therapeutic strategies that help people synchronize their focus with their brain’s natural windows.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by our staff.
About this neuroscience research news
Author: Kelsie Smith Hayduk
Source: University of Rochester
Contact: Kelsie Smith Hayduk – University of Rochester
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Frequency-specific attentional mechanisms phasically modulate the influence of distractors on task performance” by Zach V. Redding, Yun Ding, and Ian C. Fiebelkorn. PLOS Biology
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003664
Abstract
Frequency-specific attentional mechanisms phasically modulate the influence of distractors on task performance
The Rhythmic Theory of Attention proposes that visual spatial attention is characterized by alternating states that promote either sampling at the present focus of attention or a higher likelihood of shifting attentional resources to another location.
While theta-rhythmically (4–8 Hz) occurring windows of opportunity for shifting attentional resources might provide cognitive flexibility, these windows might also make us more susceptible to distractors.
Here, we used EEG in humans to test how frequency-specific neural activity phasically influences behavioral performance and visual processing when high-contrast distractors co-occur with low-contrast targets.
For trials with and without distractors, perceptual sensitivity at the cued target location depended on pre-stimulus theta phase (~7 Hz) recorded at central electrodes. For trials with distractors, there was a greater increase in false alarm rates at the same theta phase associated with lower hit rates (i.e., during the proposed “shifting state”), confirming theta-rhythmically occurring windows of increased susceptibility to distractors.
In addition to these phase–behavior effects at central electrodes, we observed phase–behavior effects at frontocentral and occipital electrodes that (i) only occurred on trials with distractors, (ii) peaked in the alpha-frequency range (~9–10 Hz), and (iii) were strongest at occipital electrodes that were contralateral to distractors.
Alpha phase at these electrodes was also associated with fluctuations in the amplitude of distractor-evoked visual responses, consistent with an alpha-mediated gating of distractors.
The present findings thus provide evidence for distinct theta- and alpha-mediated mechanisms of spatial attention that phasically modulate the influence of distractors on task performance.
