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Controlling Attention With Brain Waves

Study shows that people can boost attention by manipulating their own alpha brain waves

MIT neuroscientists have shown that people can enhance their attention by using neurofeedback to decrease alpha waves in one side of the parietal cortex. Image: Yasaman Baghezadeh
Anne Trafton
Wed, 01/15/2020 - 12:01
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Having trouble paying attention? MIT neuroscientists may have a solution for you: Turn down your alpha brain waves. In a new study, the researchers found that people can enhance their attention by controlling their own alpha brain waves based on neurofeedback they receive as they perform a particular task.

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The study found that when subjects learned to suppress alpha waves in one hemisphere of their parietal cortex, they were able to pay better attention to objects that appeared on the opposite side of their visual field. This is the first time that this cause-and-effect relationship has been seen, and it suggests that it may be possible for people to learn to improve their attention through neurofeedback.

“There’s a lot of interest in using neurofeedback to try to help people with various brain disorders and behavioral problems,” says Robert Desimone, director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “It’s a completely noninvasive way of controlling and testing the role of different types of brain activity.”

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