Handy Todd C, Kam Julia W Y
Department of Psychology.
Can J Exp Psychol. 2015 Jun;69(2):183-189. doi: 10.1037/cep0000051. Epub 2015 Apr 6.
From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, the study of attention has long centered on characterizing the basic systems we have in our brains for selecting what external sensory information to channel to our higher level, capacity-limited processes in cortex. Less understood is how these attentional systems ebb and flow in their selectivity over seconds to minutes in the course of pursuing our daily activities. Toward illuminating this issue, here we review a recent series of studies we have conducted demonstrating that the degree to which our selective attention systems are engaged with the external environment is coordinated over these timescales such that they collectively engage and disengage together as a means of transiently modulating the depth of our cognitive investment in external sensory inputs. Although our studies have primarily focused on mind wandering in healthy, young participants, we suggest that people's ability to comprehensively attenuate their selective attention to the outside world plays a fundamental role in both normal human cognition and its clinical pathology.
从认知神经科学的角度来看，长期以来，注意力研究主要集中在刻画我们大脑中用于选择外部感官信息并将其输送到大脑皮层中容量有限的高级处理过程的基本系统。而对于这些注意力系统在我们日常活动过程中，在几秒到几分钟的时间内，其选择性如何起伏变化，我们了解得较少。为了阐明这个问题，在此我们回顾一系列我们近期开展的研究，这些研究表明，我们的选择性注意力系统与外部环境的参与程度在这些时间尺度上是协调的，以至于它们会共同参与和脱离，作为一种暂时调节我们对外部感官输入认知投入深度的方式。尽管我们的研究主要聚焦于健康年轻参与者的走神现象，但我们认为，人们全面减弱对外界选择性注意力的能力在正常人类认知及其临床病理中均起着重要作用。
