Colored lights can hypnotize… sparkle someone else's eyes
Those words are from the lyrics of American Woman, a song by the 70's band Guess Who. They came to mind as I read the article: Ear Plugs to Lasers: The Science of Concentration, which was in yesterday's NY Times Science Times.
It talks about Rapt, a book by Winifred Gallagher that is about the science of attention. The book relates cutting edge research in neuroscience at MIT involving macaque monkeys, gamma waves, flashing lights and something called optogenetics.
The experiments attempted to find out what happens inside the brains of monkeys that are watching TV. The monkeys had been trained to pay close attention and look for flashing patterns.
The scientists noted that unexpected stimuli like bright lights can distract the monkeys – but that the attention could be won back if the animal's neurons are coaxed to fire in unison, sending so-called gamma waves to the visual circuitry and signaling the brain to refocus.
According to the article:
Now that neuroscientists have identified the brain’s synchronizing
mechanism, they’ve started work on therapies to strengthen attention. In the current issue of Nature,
researchers from M.I.T., Penn and Stanford report that they directly
induced gamma waves in mice by shining pulses of laser light through
tiny optical fibers onto genetically engineered neurons. In the current issue of Neuron, Dr. Desimone and colleagues report progress in using this “optogenetic” technique in monkeys.
Ultimately, Dr. Desimone said, it may be possible to improve
your attention by using pulses of light to directly synchronize your
neurons…
On a slightly more practical note, the article reports that people who meditate can more easily achieve this type of neural synchronization and hence focus attention without distraction.
The article also addressed the "myth" of multitasking:
“Multitasking is a myth,” Ms. Gallagher said. “You cannot do two things
at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or
it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain
can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a
lifetime.
(Ironically, I was reading this while plugged into Slacker Radio, listening to Alternative Hard Rock on my Blackberry, typing this post on my laptop and at the same trying to think of ideas for a proposal).
Could strobe lights accompany your next pitch?
