Is There a Modular View of Attention?

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There's always going to be attention within the specificity of the smallest unit of the brain, a neuron. But we know that thinking that a singular region does complex functions is wrong. The capacity to narrow and direct attention may be agnostic with respect to its use. And i think t these are different ways of attention operating. It makes sense that we would have more deliberative processes and automatic processes. In our modern world it can become actually quite problematic though, because now i want to sit there and put my flashlight on the email i want to write, but my text, my text messages keep coming in. And so now the flashlight, whichas there's only one of cannot be devoted toward

Research shows we are missing 50 percent of our lives because we aren’t paying attention. Many of us often feel mentally foggy, scattered, and overwhelmed. Why is it that no matter how hard you try, you seem to find yourself somewhere else — if you’re even aware you’ve drifted off to that place.

In this conversation with the acclaimed neuroscientist Amishi Jha, she recounts what her neuroscience research revealed, and shows why whether you’re simply browsing, talking to friends, or trying to stay focused in an important meeting, you can’t seem to manage to hang on to your attention.

Shermer and Jha discuss: the neuroscience of attention; what attention evolved to do; how stress, attention bias, negativity bias, thought flooding, and active listening affect attention; multitasking; the “flashlight” metaphor; mindfulness and well-being, and more…