Introduction to Attention
How Do We Turn This Attention into Numbers?
0 – 35: Low Attention or Low Cognitive Activity
Brain activity within this score range means that you are either distracted, relaxed, not engaged or calm. Understanding what this number means is very dependent on the activity that you are performing. For example:
If you spend about 60 seconds meditating, trying to relax or clearing your mind and see you your score below 35, congratulations! Staying in this range means you are engaging in low cognitive activity.
If you spend about 60 to 90 seconds trying to focus on something that takes lots of mental work like counting backwards from 200 by 3’s in your head (200, 197, 194, etc.), staying below a 35 score means you are not focused or distracted.
35 – 65 Moderate Attention
Brain activity within this score means you are falling within typical levels of engagement for doing about your daily business. For most people using this index, falling within this range is typical for activities like having a conversation with someone, reading a book for pleasure, typing on your computer, watching TV, etc. Most of the time you are going through your day you are going to be showing a score within this range.
If you are going from a low score attention score to higher one as you focus, you may stay in this range as you move into a flow state. Oppositely, if you are going from a very focused and attentive state to a more relaxed one as your score goes down, you may also travel through the moderate attention range as you start to relax.
65 – 100 High Attention or High Cognitive Activity
Brain activity within this score means you are entering a “flow state”. This means you are sustaining a high amount of concentration as you focus in on the completion of your current task at hand. If you have ever felt “in the zone” as you work hard on something, that kind of activity would most likely place you in the 65 – 100 attention score range. As we saw with low attention scores, having a high score is simply a reflection of what is happening in your brain so whether this is “good” or “bad” is entirely dependent on what you wish to do. For example:
If you spend about 60 seconds meditating or trying to clear you mind and your score consistently stays above 65, you are probably having a difficult time trying to do that. This high score shows us that you are expending a lot of mental energy thinking about something.
Imagine you spend about 60 to 90 seconds trying to deeply focus on completing a task that takes a lot of sustained, mental energy, like reading something in a foreign language, solving a difficult crossword puzzle or making a difficult calculation. If you can stay on task, not get distracted and keep your mind actively engaged, a score about 65 means that you are paying very close attention to your work.
Note: Do not get discouraged if your scores don’t match up with the results you wish. There is an entire medical concept called neurofeedback training, which is dedicated to instructing people how to become better at focusing, relaxing and many other tasks. Not everyone will be able to move their scores up and down easily at first, however we can all get better with practice!
What Should I Try Next?
Try to see if you can move your attention score up and down through your own thoughts and actions! By viewing the attention graph on your BCI Connect, try doing the following activities to move your attention score up and down:
Activities to Move Your Attention Score Up
Remember: Your score will move up when you are fully engaged in doing something while not being distracted. Sustain a certain activity for at least 30 to 60 seconds.
Close your eyes and count backwards from 200 in increments of 3 going from 200 to 197 to 194, etc.
Find a textbook or other class material and focus on reading it deeply and understanding the content.
Find a textbook or long online text and reading slowly from line to line, try to count every “e” you can see on the page for at least one minute.
Activities to Move Your Attention Score Down
Remember: Your score will move down when you are NOT cognitively active in a certain task. This will be visible when you are distracted or when your mind is clear.
Close your eyes, sit in a comfortable position and clear your mind while meditating for 60 to 90 minutes. Try to focus on something light like your breathing. Do your best not have your focus distracted by things like people talking around you or other background noise.
Do any of the activities above to raise your attention score up. Then, try distracting yourself to move the score down. For instance, play music or have a conversation with a classmate. If you are starting from a high score, these activities should bring your score down.
Try “spacing out” like daydreaming in class. Stare out the window and make your mind go blank as you lightly think about non-class related activities.
Why Does This Matter?
Good question! At first glance, all this attention number is telling me is how well I am paying attention to something. However there are two much deeper concepts that you have just taken your first steps into through this understanding.
Neurofeedback Training
You may not have realized it, but your completion of the above exercises were small examples of neurofeedback training! Neurofeedback training is the process of showing a person their brain activity with the purpose of training that person to improve mental performance. As we learned above, NASA uses neurofeedback training to help pilots visualize their brain activity during high stress activities so these people can perform better at their work. NeuroMaker’s partner organization BrainCo uses a very similar attention score to train F1 race car drivers how to enter a highly attentive state before they start their races.
The concept is simple. Use the data from this technology to analyze the best way for people to enter a focused or relaxed state and then have these people practice again and again how to control their own mental performance. Using your BCI set, you can try your own experiments how to conduct neurofeedback for yourself and your classmates!
Brain Controlled Machines
Contrary to the world of sci-fi movies, BCI devices CANNOT be controlled through mind reading. With current technology, it is not possible to think of turning on a light and then have a light turn on. However, we can use different signals your brain gives off to control other items. The attention score you have just learned about is one way we can do this. Once you have mastered entering a relaxed or focused state using the attention score, you now can control an input that a computer can understand. In a matter of fact, you can actually connect your BCI Connect software to a microcontroller and then program that board to respond to your attentions commands. You can’t turn on a light through mindreading, but you can turn on a light by increasing and decreasing your measurable focus!
This is a very important concept in brain computer interface technology. Mastering this technology is much more than developing technology to read different signals in your brain. You must also as a human learn how to control those signals in order for a machine to understand them. Since a computer can understand a 0-100 number like the attention score, you can think of mastering your movement of the attention score as learning a foreign language to speak with your BCI computer. By focusing more, your computer will see a higher number. By relaxing more, your computer will see a lower number. You can now use these number inputs to control other items on your devices with a little programming.