A meta-analysis shows that physical activity, especially cognitively complex sports like basketball or dance, significantly improves attention and focus, serving as a natural alternative or supplement to medication for attention-deficit disorder. Regular moderate exercise enhances brain function by increasing blood flow and releasing beneficial proteins, with timing and enjoyment being key factors for maximizing benefits.
New research shows that ADHD drugs like Adderall and Ritalin do not directly improve attention but instead increase brain arousal and the feeling of reward, making tasks seem more interesting and easier to focus on. The drugs primarily affect brain regions related to wakefulness and motivation, and their effectiveness can be influenced by sleep quality. This challenges previous beliefs about how these medications work and suggests a need to reevaluate their role in treating ADHD.
A Canadian study found that people blink less when listening to speech, especially in noisy environments, suggesting blinking is linked to cognitive effort and attention, and could potentially be used to assess mental workload in the future.
A study published in Neuropsychologia found that children exposed to trauma, even without behavioral symptoms, show subtle differences in brain activity related to attention and impulse control, with variations by sex, highlighting the importance of neural markers in understanding trauma's impact on development.
A study finds that cognitive difficulties in children with learning problems are core to their condition, while those in children with ADHD without learning difficulties are mainly due to attentional issues, highlighting different underlying causes and implications for targeted interventions.
Research shows that brief, under-five-minute micro-breaks can significantly improve focus, attention, and learning outcomes by allowing the brain to reset neural networks, enhance memory consolidation, and maintain cognitive flexibility, making them a valuable tool in educational settings.
Zohran Mamdani offers five lessons for Democrats emphasizing the importance of substance, conflict, style, competence, and discipline to regain attention and credibility by focusing on tangible issues like affordability and using conflict strategically to highlight material concerns, all while maintaining a steady, confident presence that connects with voters' everyday struggles.
A study shows that walking enhances brain responses to sounds and shifts auditory attention depending on walking direction, suggesting the brain filters routine noises and amplifies unexpected sounds to improve safety and navigation in dynamic environments.
A study reveals that the brain's attention system first broadly prepares to focus on general features like color or movement within 240 milliseconds, then quickly narrows down to specific details such as the exact color or direction in about 400 milliseconds, highlighting a hierarchical process that could inform understanding of attention disorders.
A study from the University of Bremen reveals that the brain's ability to focus depends on the precise timing of signals reaching nerve cells, which only process information if they arrive during brief receptive cycles, providing insights into attention mechanisms and potential applications in medicine and technology.
The most effective productivity hack is often the one you least want to do, as modern life depletes our limited attention span with constant distractions, and while numerous hacks and tools exist, they can sometimes be more burdensome than helpful.
A study reveals that reward expectations influence sensitivity and decision bias through separate neural pathways, with sensitivity linked to attention centers and bias to decision-making areas, offering insights into how rewards shape perception and choices.
The brain seamlessly switches between external perception and internal memory, involving overlapping yet distinct neural networks, with ongoing research exploring whether a central control system manages these shifts or if they emerge from competitive dynamics within shared networks, which has implications for understanding cognitive function and disorders.
A 30-day mindfulness meditation study using eye-tracking found significant improvements in attention control across all ages, highlighting its potential to support brain health and cognitive function regardless of age.
Researchers at Yale developed a model called 'adaptive computation' to understand how the brain selectively focuses on relevant stimuli and ignores distractions, revealing insights into human attention, mental effort, and potential applications for more human-like AI systems.
