In the Zone or Zoning Out? Tracking Behavioral and Neural Fluctuations During Sustained Attention
TL;DR: A novel task is introduced, along with innovative analysis procedures that probe the relationships between reaction time (RT) variability, attention lapses, and intrinsic brain activity, and represent an important step forward in linking intrinsicbrain activity to behavioral phenomena.
Abstract: Despite growing recognition that attention fluctuates from moment-to-moment during sustained performance, prevailing analysis strategies involve averaging data across multiple trials or time points, treating these fluctuations as noise. Here, using alternative approaches, we clarify the relationship between ongoing brain activity and performance fluctuations during sustained attention. We introduce a novel task (the gradual onset continuous performance task), along with innovative analysis procedures that probe the relationships between reaction time (RT) variability, attention lapses, and intrinsic brain activity. Our results highlight 2 attentional states-a stable, less error-prone state ("in the zone"), characterized by higher default mode network (DMN) activity but during which subjects are at risk of erring if DMN activity rises beyond intermediate levels, and a more effortful mode of processing ("out of the zone"), that is less optimal for sustained performance and relies on activity in dorsal attention network (DAN) regions. These findings motivate a new view of DMN and DAN functioning capable of integrating seemingly disparate reports of their role in goal-directed behavior. Further, they hold potential to reconcile conflicting theories of sustained attention, and represent an important step forward in linking intrinsic brain activity to behavioral phenomena.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that whole-brain functional network strength provides a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention, and predicts a clinical measure of attention—symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—from resting-state connectivity in an independent sample of children and adolescents.
Abstract: Although attention plays a ubiquitous role in perception and cognition, researchers lack a simple way to measure a person's overall attentional abilities. Because behavioral measures are diverse and difficult to standardize, we pursued a neuromarker of an important aspect of attention, sustained attention, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. To this end, we identified functional brain networks whose strength during a sustained attention task predicted individual differences in performance. Models based on these networks generalized to previously unseen individuals, even predicting performance from resting-state connectivity alone. Furthermore, these same models predicted a clinical measure of attention--symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder--from resting-state connectivity in an independent sample of children and adolescents. These results demonstrate that whole-brain functional network strength provides a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention.
801 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that neuroscientific evidence plays a critical role in understanding the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact, and is advocated for a view of control function that treats it as a domain of reward-based decision making.
Abstract: Research on cognitive control and executive function has long recognized the relevance of motivational factors. Recently, however, the topic has come increasingly to center stage, with a surge of new studies examining the interface of motivation and cognitive control. In the present article we survey research situated at this interface, considering work from cognitive and social psychology and behavioral economics, but with a particular focus on neuroscience research. We organize existing findings into three core areas, considering them in the light of currently vying theoretical perspectives. Based on the accumulated evidence, we advocate for a view of control function that treats it as a domain of reward-based decision making. More broadly, we argue that neuroscientific evidence plays a critical role in understanding the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact. Opportunities for further cross-fertilization between behavioral and neuroscientific research are highlighted.
661 citations
Cites background from "In the Zone or Zoning Out? Tracking..."
...In almost any task context, the intensity and direction of control tend to vary over time, both in response to the details of the task and independent of them (Eichele et al. 2008, Esterman et al. 2013, Weissman et al. 2006)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used source reconstructed magneto-and electroencephalographic recordings to characterize the dynamics of ongoing cortical activity and found robust power-law scaling in neuronal LRTCs and avalanches in resting-state data and during the performance of audiovisual threshold stimulus detection tasks.
Abstract: Scale-free fluctuations are ubiquitous in behavioral performance and neuronal activity. In time scales from seconds to hundreds of seconds, psychophysical dynamics and the amplitude fluctuations of neuronal oscillations are governed by power-law-form long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs). In millisecond time scales, neuronal activity comprises cascade-like neuronal avalanches that exhibit power-law size and lifetime distributions. However, it remains unknown whether these neuronal scaling laws are correlated with those characterizing behavioral performance or whether neuronal LRTCs and avalanches are related. Here, we show that the neuronal scaling laws are strongly correlated both with each other and with behavioral scaling laws. We used source reconstructed magneto- and electroencephalographic recordings to characterize the dynamics of ongoing cortical activity. We found robust power-law scaling in neuronal LRTCs and avalanches in resting-state data and during the performance of audiovisual threshold stimulus detection tasks. The LRTC scaling exponents of the behavioral performance fluctuations were correlated with those of concurrent neuronal avalanches and LRTCs in anatomically identified brain systems. The behavioral exponents also were correlated with neuronal scaling laws derived from a resting-state condition and with a similar anatomical topography. Finally, despite the difference in time scales, the scaling exponents of neuronal LRTCs and avalanches were strongly correlated during both rest and task performance. Thus, long and short time-scale neuronal dynamics are related and functionally significant at the behavioral level. These data suggest that the temporal structures of human cognitive fluctuations and behavioral variability stem from the scaling laws of individual and intrinsic brain dynamics.
408 citations
TL;DR: This work proposes an oscillatory model of sustained attention that relies on frontomedial theta oscillations, inter-areal communication via low-frequency phase synchronisation, and selective excitation and inhibition of cognitive processing through gamma and alpha oscillations to protect task performance against fatigue and distraction.
351 citations
[...]
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: Evidence suggests that mind wandering shares many similarities with traditional notions of executive control, and can be seen as a goal-driven process, albeit one that is not directed toward the primary task.
Abstract: This article reviews the hypothesis that mind wandering can be integrated into executive models of attention. Evidence suggests that mind wandering shares many similarities with traditional notions of executive control. When mind wandering occurs, the executive components of attention appear to shift away from the primary task, leading to failures in task performance and superficial representations of the external environment. One challenge for incorporating mind wandering into standard executive models is that it often occurs in the absence of explicit intention--a hallmark of controlled processing. However, mind wandering, like other goal-related processes, can be engaged without explicit awareness; thus, mind wandering can be seen as a goal-driven process, albeit one that is not directed toward the primary task.
243 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, an alternative approach, which relies on the assumption that areas of true neural activity will tend to stimulate signal changes over contiguous pixels, is presented, which can improve statistical power by as much as fivefold over techniques that rely solely on adjusting per pixel false positive probabilities.
Abstract: The typical functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study presents a formidable problem of multiple statistical comparisons (i.e., > 10,000 in a 128 x 128 image). To protect against false positives, investigators have typically relied on decreasing the per pixel false positive probability. This approach incurs an inevitable loss of power to detect statistically significant activity. An alternative approach, which relies on the assumption that areas of true neural activity will tend to stimulate signal changes over contiguous pixels, is presented. If one knows the probability distribution of such cluster sizes as a function of per pixel false positive probability, one can use cluster-size thresholds independently to reject false positives. Both Monte Carlo simulations and fMRI studies of human subjects have been used to verify that this approach can improve statistical power by as much as fivefold over techniques that rely solely on adjusting per pixel false positive probabilities.
3,094 citations
TL;DR: It was demonstrated that mind-wandering is associated with activity in a default network of cortical regions that are active when the brain is “at rest” and individuals' reports of the tendency of their minds to wander were correlated with activity on this network.
Abstract: Despite evidence pointing to a ubiquitous tendency of human minds to wander, little is known about the neural operations that support this core component of human cognition. Using both thought sampling and brain imaging, the current investigation demonstrated that mind-wandering is associated with activity in a default network of cortical regions that are active when the brain is "at rest." In addition, individuals' reports of the tendency of their minds to wander were correlated with activity in this network.
2,515 citations
"In the Zone or Zoning Out? Tracking..." refers background in this paper
...…et al. 2007; Li et al. 2007; Eichele et al. 2008; slower responding, Weissman et al. 2006), but have also been associated with faster responding (Gilbert et al. 2006; Hahn et al. 2007), better target detection (Sadaghiani et al. 2009), and more practiced, effortless performance (Mason et al. 2007)....
[...]
...…aligns well with the widely reported phenomenon of greater task-evoked deactivation with increasing task difficulty (e.g. McKiernan et al. 2003, 2006), as well as with findings of greater deactivation during performance of novel than practiced tasks (Mason et al. 2007; Jolles et al. 2010)....
[...]
...These more dramatic elevations may represent mind-wandering or stimulus-independent processing, functions that have previously been ascribed to the DMN and shown to precede errors (McGuire et al. 1996; McKiernan et al. 2006; Mason et al. 2007; Christoff et al. 2009)....
[...]
TL;DR: It is speculated that envisioning the future (prospection), remembering the past, conceiving the viewpoint of others (theory of mind), and possibly some forms of navigation reflect the workings of the same core brain network.
2,348 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that errors on the SART can be predicted by a significant shortening of reaction times in the immediately preceding responses, supporting the view that these errors are a result of 'drift' of controlled processing into automatic responding consequent on impaired sustained attention to task.
1,748 citations
"In the Zone or Zoning Out? Tracking..." refers methods in this paper
...In these variants of CPTs (e.g. the sustained attention to response task [SART]; Robertson et al. 1997; Conners’ CPT-II; Conners 2000), participants are required to respond on most trials, with rare “stop” trials serving as targets....
[...]