Getting things done amid distractions can feel like a battle of willpower. But researchers found it’s not just you — your brain helps steer attention and keep you on track, or at least tries to.
Focus Works Better in Some Brains
Neurobiologists have uncovered how “visual motion” neurons in the front of the brain can guide attention. Thanks to these neurons, people can concentrate on the task at hand, regardless of how enticing short-term distractions may be.
Bijan Pesaran, a professor of neurosurgery and the study’s senior author, says their research indicates that while all brains can focus on beneficial tasks and filter out distractions, some do this more effectively than others. By understanding how our brains process reward stimuli, researchers hope to learn why this ability falters in cognitive and mental disorders such as attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Coordinated “Beta Bursts” Enhance Focus
In animal models, scientists found that neurons in the brain’s motivation-and-reward circuitry activate to keep attention on a primary task and block distracting stimuli. This coordinated neural activity — “beta bursts” tied to top-down cognitive control — appears to be a key mechanism that helps humans and other large mammals tune out noise and complete important tasks.
Agrita Dubi, a study author, says this suggests that beta bursts occur within the network of visual-motion neurons and act as “traffic directors” for neurons processing various visual stimuli. It also suggests that sustaining focus on a beneficial task requires significant energy — and that this capacity might be boosted, especially in people with attention deficits.
Though preliminary, this research marks a step forward in understanding how brains prioritize tasks and could help target focus-related issues in neurodivergent people.
