Pay attention. As children, and even as adults, one of the most common phrases heard is “pay attention.” Pay attention to what your parents say, pay attention to your work, pay attention to your chores. Focus. We are taught that if we allow ourselves to be distracted we will make mistakes. Focusing, however, is easier said than done. Not only is it difficult for one voice, object, or activity to fully capture one’s attention, but the world naturally finds ways to interrupt. Paying attention to your professor’s lecture becomes increasingly difficult as someone’s phone begins vibrating on their desk or someone shuffles through their bag or a fan intermittently hums in the background. Concentrating is not only a difficult task for neurotypical individuals, but it seems that those who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at a greater disadvantage when asked to ignore interrupting auditory stimuli.
A study conducted in Finland by Salmi et al intended to explore the effects of ADHD on attention control processes. In the research report, “Out of Focus – Brain Attention Control Deficits in Adult ADHD,” the authors explain the diverse visual and auditory tasks their participants engaged in as data was collected to identify the roles of three specific types of attention (focus, divided, and stimulus-driven) as well as the effects of unimodal and bimodal sensory inputs. The researchers hypothesized heightened neural signatures of attentional control in sensory areas of the brain as task-relevant functions were modulated. The collected data demonstrated that, in ADHD subjects, the auditory-focused attention tasks elicited high levels of activity in the sensory cortical areas. Recorded reaction times for all participants showed little to no variance between the neurotypical and the neurodivergent groups. However, regional brain activity in all participants illustrated the adaptation of attention control networks for varying tasks. These results demonstrate how attention control deficits inhibit top-down processes when disregarding irrelevant information. Additionally, these deficits are characterized by the presence of irrelevant sensory modality and discernible difficulty modulating levels of attention (Salmi et al, 12-17).
Further proof can be found in a recent experiment published by Kwasa et al. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University studied neural and electrophysiological responses in neurotypical and ADHD individuals during auditory concentration tasks. They sought out contrasts in the individuals’ capability to control attentional processes. The authors of the article, “Top Down Attention Modulates Auditory-Evoked Neural Responses In Neurotypical, But Not ADHD, Young Adults,” hypothesized that individuals diagnosed with ADHD would show high distractibility and weak neurological attentional control when compared to their neurotypical counterparts. The participants were tested on their ability to consciously focus on a distinct “target” stream as well as their ability to easily shift their focus to an inconsistent “interrupter.” The distractor stimuli would play from a different direction than the target steam, if the interrupter appeared at all. Both groups demonstrated top-down attentional control in the recorded neural responses to auditory stimuli. The collected data showed a subject’s performance depended heavily on the arranged stimuli and the task at hand, rather than ADHD diagnoses or lack thereof. However, results indicate that ADHD individuals experience weak sensory gating which contrasts the data collected for the neurotypical controls. Whilst the overall groups composed of neurotypical and neurodivergent subjects did not showcase large behavioral differences, the neural responses to the unpredictable interrupting sound evidenced that the participants diagnosed with ADHD display substandard voluntary allocation of attention (Kwasa et al., 2-7). These differences between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals might not seem essential. Nonetheless, when sensory stimuli is not regulated, as it is for psychological experiments, these attentional control deficits significantly alter an individual’s experience in a work environment. Therefore, whenever you find yourself wanting to focus, remember that for most it is easier said than done.
Works Cited
Juha Salmi, Viljami Salmela, Emma Salo, Katri Mikkola, Sami Leppämäki, Pekka Tani, Laura Hokkanen, Marja Laasonen, Jussi Numminen, Kimmo Alho, Out of focus – Brain attention control deficits in adult ADHD, Brain Research, Volume 1692, 2018, Pages 12-22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2018.04.019.
Kwasa, Jasmine & Noyce, Abigail & Torres, Laura & Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara. (2021). Top-down attention modulates auditory-evoked neural responses in neurotypical, but not ADHD, young adults, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.11.430824.
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