Hartelius Glenn, Likova Lora T, Tyler Christopher W
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Feb 24;13:810780. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.810780. eCollection 2022.
This study provides evidence supporting the operation of a novel cognitive process of a somatic seat of attention, or ego-center, whose somatic location is under voluntary control and that provides access to differential emotional resources. Attention has typically been studied in terms of what it is directed toward, but it can also be associated with a localized representation in the body image that is experienced as the source or seat of attention-an aspect that has previously only been studied by subjective techniques. Published studies of this phenomenon under terms such as egocenter or self-location suggest that the seat of attention can be situated in various ways within the experienced body, resulting in what are here referred to as different attentional stances. These studies also provide evidence that changes in attentional stance are associated with differences in cognitive skill, emotional temperament, self-construal, and social and moral attitudes, as well as with access to certain states of consciousness. In the present study, EEG results from multiple trials of each of 11 specific attentional stances confirmed that patterns of neural activity associated with the voluntarily control of attentional stances can be reliably measured, providing evidence for a differential neural substrate underlying the subjective location of the seat of attention. Additionally, brain activation patterns for the attentional stances showed strong correlations with EEG signatures associated with specific positive emotional states and with arousal, confirming that differential locations of the seat of attention can be objectively associated with different emotion states, as implied in previous literature. The ability to directly manage the seat of attention into various attentional stances holds substantial potential for facilitating access to specific cognitive and emotional resources in a new way.
本研究提供了证据，支持一种新的认知过程的运作，即存在一个躯体性注意力中心或自我中心，其躯体位置受自主控制，并能获取不同的情绪资源。注意力通常是根据其指向的对象来研究的，但它也可能与身体意象中的局部表征相关联，这种表征被体验为注意力的来源或中心——这一方面此前仅通过主观技术进行过研究。已发表的关于以自我中心或自我定位等术语表述的这一现象的研究表明，注意力中心在体验到的身体内可以有多种定位方式，从而产生了这里所说的不同注意力姿态。这些研究还提供证据表明，注意力姿态的变化与认知技能、情绪气质、自我构念、社会和道德态度的差异相关，也与进入某些意识状态有关。在本研究中，对11种特定注意力姿态各自进行多次试验所得到的脑电图结果证实，与注意力姿态的自主控制相关的神经活动模式能够被可靠地测量，这为注意力中心主观定位背后存在差异的神经基质提供了证据。此外，注意力姿态的大脑激活模式与与特定积极情绪状态及唤醒相关的脑电图特征显示出强烈相关性，证实了注意力中心的不同定位能够如先前文献所暗示的那样，客观地与不同情绪状态相关联。直接将注意力中心管理到各种注意力姿态的能力，具有以新方式促进获取特定认知和情绪资源的巨大潜力。
