by Zeev Nitsan
The Focus of the Attention Beam as Wiring our Habits
We often act according to alternate repetitive sequences of focusing our attention on information related to performing a task, its performance in practice, refocusing it on a different data, and so on, in a continuous manner.
The material expression of information assimilation in a learning process is the creation of a new networking pattern between the neurons. Such learning involves focusing our attention beam on the sequence of data related to the skill. Our attention is, to a great extent, the chief imprinter of the profile of proficiency at the mint of the brain’s skills. In its absence, or at times when it is faint, the portrait of the skill becomes blurred and loses some of its characteristics within a short period of time.
With respect to the problematic aspect of acquiring addictive habits, often a precondition for a sustainable change in the brain’s wiring, which causes the creation of addiction, is consciously focusing the attention on the object of addiction in a repetitive pattern. As a result, the three-dimensional wiring network that stores the information about the addictive behavior becomes strengthened. For instance, focusing attention on the contents of online porn, beyond the critical threshold of occurrences, creates the change in the wiring that is at the basis of the addiction.
The Wonder of Reading as an Example for the Maneuvering Ability of Focusing our Attention Beam
While we read a book, the attention beam produced by our brain focuses on understanding the contents of the paragraphs. This is the complex processing stage through which our brain grants meaning to the sequence of letters.
The configurational aspect of the font of the letters usually does not reach the conscious level but remains at the unconscious level. This fact will change in cases where the configurational aspect has an irregular form, which will shift our attention beam, or if we voluntarily focus our attention on this aspect in case we become interested in the shape of the letters. The maneuvering range with regard to the aspect on which we focus our attention enables us to skip from one resolution of information processing to the next, from the most basic level to the most complex one.
Attention Filters
It is impossible to encode and store all the impressions we experience. There are attention mechanisms that filter and delete a large amount of information at the early stage of the perceptual input. The encoding is done under the auspices of our attention and derives directly from our ability to focus our attention.
Attention-filtering mechanisms determine the fate of small information fishes that penetrate the holes of the sensory perception net. Some of them are sent from the sensory organs to the brain, and some of them are sent to the ocean of oblivion. Perception impressions that survived the sensory input stage and reached our brain but did not manage to cross the wall of brain imprinting are also sent to the ocean of oblivion. The attention filter is like a firewall that protects the contents of consciousness.
The attention skill is measured, to a great extent, by the ability to selectively seal our brain from most pieces of sensory information. The level of the sensory input river constantly threatens to flood our brain and disrupt its activity.
The level of attention at the time of the experience serves as a predicting element regarding the lastingness of the related memory. The level of our attention determines the extent to which we are “present” in experiencing the perception impressions. Twilight zones of full consciousness, but faint attention, are familiar to all of us, and the perception impressions from such instances are likely to be shallow or disappear altogether.
The saying “Yes, there were times when I forgot not only who I was but that I was, forgot to be” (Samuel Beckett, Molloy) can be interpreted as being present in a moment in the present without full consciousness or attention—as an absentee present, which leads to failure in encoding the events of a certain instance.
Given a fast pace of stimulations, which challenges our attention capacity, stimulations that do not make vibrations in the pool of emotions, and that are emotionally neutral, tend to drip beneath the threshold of perception. On the other hand, stimulations that “make waves” in the pool of emotions, and that are emotionally charged, tend to be caught.
A delay in the expected feedback of the input (as in a situation in which we expect to see figures on a computer screen promptly but they appear on the screen a few seconds afterward) might lead to a ‘cognitive sweeping’ and the wandering of attention to other provinces.
Initiated intensification of the level of attention is possible by means of charging the perception impressions with emotional contents that are relevant to us. Such charging leads to intensification of attention and increases the chance of intensifying the memory of specific information. In fact, it is an initiated stimulation of the amygdala and its enslavement as an instrument in the orchestra run by the frontal cortex.
By being aware of the different “intensity levels” we apply to a stimulation from the external or internal environment, and through channeling and focusing our attention, we can gain a certain maneuvering area of voluntary control. It can be achieved by intensifying or dimming the intensity of attention and by controlling the direction of the attention beam and its diameter. In such a way we determine which aspects of the world will benefit from more extensive processing. The aspects that are located at the center of our attention beam are granted a higher level of awareness. On the other hand, it is possible to determine which aspects of the world will undergo more limited processing in the brain. These will be pushed to the margins of our attention beam, and the level of awareness granted to them will be low.
The dimming of attention and the directing of its beam are the main tools used for applying levels of perceptional importance to various world aspects. Improving the perception skills and focusing of attention can be based on practice in voluntary omission of irrelevant information and perceiving relevant information. Controlling the aperture of our attention eye enables us the maneuver of a zoom-in or zoom-out type, which enables the eye of perception to see the forest that bursts out from a group of trees or, alternatively, a particular tree in the forest, according to our needs.
When we face a challenge with inherent stimulations that distract our attention, we can use our focusing attention ability. We might be assisted by the ability to create voluntary “sensory deprivation” for certain aspects of reality in order to focus our attention on selected aspects of reality. As with Odysseus’ sailors sealing their ears with wax when approaching the sirens who sang their devilish songs, voluntary avoidance of certain aspects of an input enables us to focus on a particular task and decrease the level of distraction.
A Zen insight related to bow-shooting, according to which “the archer basically directs to himself,” might be interpreted as saying that voluntary focus of attention on an external target requires focusing of internal attention, which must come first.
Skips of Attention
As a television camera brings to the screen events from changing angles and locations, so our attention beam focuses alternately on the changing objects of interest. The skipping between objects of attention is possible by means of shifting the projector of attention. Thus, sometimes a “marginal” stimulation, which once was at the margins of our attention focus, relocates to the center of focus. Division of attention means the focus of attention alternately shifts between different objects of attention.
Attention transitions can take place in a smooth pattern of a continuous transition between one object of attention to the next, or in a skipping pattern of shifting the focus of attention from one object of attention to another.
It seems the ability to consciously change the object of attention focus originates in a dialogue between the areas of sensory input in the cortex and a brain area called the thalamus. This ability enables us to alternately zigzag between the small letters and the titles and to focus our attention on pieces of information that usually slip from the eye of consci
ousness.
Impressions of the Senses Craving Consciousness Screen Time
Our control over the allocation of the cake of mental resources in our brain is only partial. In most cases, we pass the knife, which is in charge of dividing the cake, to the hands of the capricious reality circumstances that give generous pieces of the cake to random world events. Internal or external distractions “steal” slices from the screen of consciousness.
The confrontation arenas of daily life magnetize our attention and the thoughts at the front of consciousness and, most of the time, prevents channeling of mental resources to matters at the core of our existence.
The rhythm of life, which confronts us with reality manifestations with great intensity, prevents us from thinking deeply about basic existential questions and researching them. In an indirect manner, it enables us to repress the fact that we are not immortal and to avoid a thorough cogitation about our existence.
Focusing our perception on the input selected from all the components of information that compose the experience while we change the focus of attention is a process that heavily consumes mental energy. Our attention tends to be “snatched” by irregular or unexpected events, such as a loud, sudden noise.
An example is a clock’s cuckoo that strikes thirteen times. Phenomena that do not match the routine order of the world usually catch our attention in an attempt to track down the source of irregularity. Our attention beam is shifted at once toward the source of irregularity that challenges our expectations regarding world phenomena.
This fact is taken advantage of at the theater. In order to retain the audience’s attention, the performers often wear phantasmagoric costumes, full of heart-stirring tricks, since it is known that extraordinary elements tend to magnetize attention.
“Oh, Damn It”—Primeval Behavior Spurts
When something that contradicts our immediate expectations happens and, at the same time, we are challenged by a task requiring immediate focus of our attention, we are prone to slips of the tongue and spurts of raw behavior. The explanation for this is probably that these tasks swallow our mental energy; not enough of it is left for the system in charge of behavioral filtering and censorship, which is located mostly at the frontal lobes.
“Automatic behavior spurts,” moments of loose association (“flight of ideas”), spontaneous, immediate reaction for stimulations and exceptional memory modes in which memories from different times are merged—all of these are situations that might serve as a keyhole for the worlds of unconsciousness and preconsciousness. In such situations, a hidden door, which is usually hidden from the gaze of the normal mode of consciousness, is opened, and forgotten plots from our past materialize.
Some see such forms of behavioral output as a draft that serves as the spokesperson of the stream of consciousness without mediation, proofreading, or editing at the frontal lobes.
The Zeigarnik Effect is named after psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, whose studies exposed the tendency of “unfinished matters” to take control over inches of the screen of consciousness until they are taken care of.[17] Such a tendency is used in television series and in films that end at a dramatic moment before closure. It is done in order to maintain viewers’ interest. This psychological “trick” is called the cliffhanger effect—like a person who clings to a cliff, and what the future holds for him troubles our mind until the next episode.
An example for the echoing intensity of unfinished matters, which is cross- generational, is the proof for the claim of mathematician Pierre de Fermat. Some consider him the patron of “unfinished matters.” In 1637, Fermat scribbled a note at the margins of a book whose content echoed in the field of mathematics for hundreds of years. This note was known as the unfinished proof of Fermat and remained on the screen of collective consciousness of mathematicians for a long period of time. The proof was finally found in 1994 by a British mathematician, Andrew Wiles, who had searched for it for seven years, and it was explained and described in more than a hundred pages. The proof that has been “hanging on a cliff” for 350 years finally found solid ground.
Mental Juggling
The aim of mental juggling is to “keep all the balls in the air,” which means to perform all tasks successfully at the same time.
Control areas in the brain act as a “semaphore” (a term taken from computer science that refers to the mechanism that synchronizes several processes taking place simultaneously) and try to channel attention resources according to the quantity and timing that match the tasks.
The ability to divide our attention and focus our attention beam on the information that washes over the screen of consciousness at a very rapid refreshing pace is one of the abilities that is most vulnerable to the ravages of time as we become older.
Over-Dispersion of the Focus of Attention
The over-dispersion risk of the beam of attention is reflected in the famous saying “the one who is everywhere, is nowhere to be found.”
Dispersion of the attention beam leads to a split screen of consciousness on which several films of input experience are projected in parallel.
Sometimes, the attempt to spread the fan of consciousness to its full width in order to deal with a challenging task, physically and mentally, causes a failure of attention resources.
When the same brain areas are required to perform several tasks simultaneously, the transportation channels within them become crowded; performance is slowed down and might even become disrupted. Multitask division of attention is considered an admirable skill, which is glorified in our modern work environments. In a situation in which our cognitive resources skip from one task to another in real time, however, the safety margins, which are in charge of accurate performance, become narrower, and we are more prone to make mistakes or perform defectively. Some see multitasking as a vicious myth that puts us in danger of crashing into the wall of reality. Thus, for instance, a study conducted by the American Ministry of Transportation showed that approximately 80 percent (!) of crashes between motor vehicles took place while the drivers were busy with another task in addition to driving, such as dealing with their mobile phones.
Too many accessories in the driver’s cabin, including a multitude of indicators, displays, and buttons, might also create an overload of information that might steal essential attention resources from the task of driving.
A correct management of the “workload,” which is reflected in resource allocation that matches brain capacity and prevents over-dispersion of the attention beam, is an essential condition to high-quality task performance.
Underneath the Crust of Consciousness—the Land of Subconsciousness
Major parts of the thinking processes are formed in the shadowy zone of the subconscious, and some take place at the brightly illuminated areas, which are exposed to the sun of consciousness. Our mental life is a mix of conscious and unconscious thinking.
At each stage of our life, the relations between these thinking types change according to our situation. When we are busy with a task that follows external world phenomena, it seems that the mix includes a higher percentage of conscious, task-oriented thinking. While we are ponder in daydreaming provinces, the pendulum moves toward more unconscious thinking. It seems that, along the continuum of our mental life, however, the two types of thinking are present in different proportions except for at times of deep unconsciousness. In such cases, conscious thinking is probably totally absent from the stage of our mental life.
The term “unconscious” has different layers of meaning. On the cognitive layer, there is common agreement that most of the information processing processes probably take place at the unconscious layer, or, metaphorically speaking, behind the back of consciousness. Freud’s version of the term “unconscious” refers to the estimated location of the repressed, the locked garden of the forbidden, and, as such, it is disputed with regard to terminology.
Similar to the light coming from a ray of sun, which meets our eyes eight minutes after i
ts creation in the sun, it seems that many of our decisions are formed at the unconscious layer and our consciousness becomes aware of them after some delay, although it tends to see itself as the initial source.
Brain researcher Benjamin Libet[18] conducted a series of experiments in the early 1980s. The experiments showed that brain activity—which is related to movement and called the “readiness potential,” during which the nature and timing of movement are determined—is formed half a second prior to the forming of a conscious sense of desire to perform the movement. In other words, a distinguished, separated neurological process is formed at the unconscious layer and initializes the action before the conscious layer makes its contribution, thus leading to the plausible interpretation that the decision originator in our brain is found at the unconscious level and our consciousness, which is the home of free will, is informed in retrospect.
A series of experiments conducted by Libet supposedly shows that we do not do what we want to do, but, rather, want what we do. Ascribing decisions to a conscious activity is a supposedly false perception. Some saw it as a scientific, empirical proof for the belief that decisions are not formed at the conscious layer; thus, they are not born from free will, which is only a misrepresentation. In the spirit of this interpretation, we might claim free will in the brain is a “slave” in its own house, forced to want whatever was previously decided.
The activity of the readiness potential precedes the conscious sense of desire to perform the action, which reinforces the wonderment regarding the status of consciousness in the decision-making hierarchy.