Paying close attention to something: Not that easy, is it? It's because our attention is pulled in so many different directions at a time, and it's in fact pretty impressive if you can stay focused.
Obratiti pažnju na nešto; nije jednostavno, zar ne? To je zato što našu pažnju u isto vrijeme odvlače različite stvari, i zapravo je fascinantno što možete ostati fokusirani.
Many people think that attention is all about what we are focusing on, but it's also about what information our brain is trying to filter out.
Mnogu ljudi misle da je za pažnju bitno na što se fokusiramo, ali bitno je i koje informacije mozak pokušava filtrirati.
There are two ways you direct your attention. First, there's overt attention. In overt attention, you move your eyes towards something in order to pay attention to it. Then there's covert attention. In covert attention, you pay attention to something, but without moving your eyes. Think of driving for a second. Your overt attention, your direction of the eyes, are in front, but that's your covert attention which is constantly scanning the surrounding area, where you don't actually look at them.
Postoje dva načina da obratite pažnju. Prvi je očita pažnja. U očitoj pažnji, pokrećete oči prema nečemu kako bi obratili pažnju. Postoji i prikrivena pažnja. U prikrivenoj pažnji, obraćate pažnju na nešto ali bez pokretanja očiju. Dobar primjer je vožnja. Očita pažnja, smjer pogleda, je naprijed, ali je vaša prikrivena pažnja ta koja konstantno pregledava okolinu, dok ne gledate u nju.
I'm a computational neuroscientist, and I work on cognitive brain-machine interfaces, or bringing together the brain and the computer. I love brain patterns. Brain patterns are important for us because based on them we can build models for the computers, and based on these models computers can recognize how well our brain functions. And if it doesn't function well, then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devices for therapies. But that also means something, because choosing the wrong patterns will give us the wrong models and therefore the wrong therapies. Right? In case of attention, the fact that we can shift our attention not only by our eyes but also by thinking -- that makes covert attention an interesting model for computers.
Ja sam računalni neuroznanstvenik, i radim na kognitivnim mozak-mašina sučeljima, to jest, približavam mozak i računalo. Volim obrasce mozga. Obrasci mozga su bitni za nas jer na temelju njih možemo sagraditi modele za računala, i na temelju tih modela računalo može prepoznati koliko dobro naš mozak radi. I ako ne radi dobro, sama računala mogu se koristiti za ocjenu stanja u terapiji. Ali to znači da ako odaberemo pogrešne obrasce, dobit ćemo pogrešne modele i time pogrešnu terapiju. Zar ne? U slučaju pažnje, činjenica da možemo promjeniti našu patnju ne samo očima već i samim mišljenjem -- to čini prikrivenu pažnju zanimljivim modelom za računala.
So I wanted to know what are the brainwave patterns when you look overtly or when you look covertly. I set up an experiment for that. In this experiment there are two flickering squares, one of them flickering at a slower rate than the other one. Depending on which of these flickers you are paying attention to, certain parts of your brain will start resonating in the same rate as that flickering rate. So by analyzing your brain signals, we can track where exactly you are watching or you are paying attention to.
Htio sam znati koji su obrasci moždanih valova kada se radi o očitoj ili prikrivenoj pažnji. Postavio sam za to eksperiment. U eksperimentu postoje dva trepteća kvadrata, jedan treperi sporije od drugog. ovisno o tome na koji se obrati pažnja, određeni dijelovi mozga počinju rezonirati istom frekvencijom kojom kvadrat treperi. Analizirajući vaše signale u mozgu, možemo pratiti gdje točno gledate ili na što obraćate pažnju.
So to see what happens in your brain when you pay overt attention, I asked people to look directly in one of the squares and pay attention to it. In this case, not surprisingly, we saw that these flickering squares appeared in their brain signals which was coming from the back of their head, which is responsible for the processing of your visual information. But I was really interested to see what happens in your brain when you pay covert attention. So this time I asked people to look in the middle of the screen and without moving their eyes, to pay attention to either of these squares. When we did that, we saw that both of these flickering rates appeared in their brain signals, but interestingly, only one of them, which was paid attention to, had stronger signals, so there was something in the brain which was handling this information so that thing in the brain was basically the activation of the frontal area. The front part of your brain is responsible for higher cognitive functions as a human. The frontal part, it seems that it works as a filter trying to let information come in only from the right flicker that you are paying attention to and trying to inhibit the information coming from the ignored one.
Da vidite što se dešava u vašem mozgu kada se služite očitom pažnjom, pitao sam ljude da gledaju u jedan od kvadrata i obrate pažnju na njega. U tom slučaju, očekivano, vidjeli smo da su se ovi trepteći pravokutnici pojavili u signalima mozga koji dolaze iz stražnjeg dijela glave, koji obrađuje vidne informacije. Ali mene je zanimalo što se desi kada obraćamo prikrivenu pažnju. Ovaj put sam pitao ljude da gledaju u sredinu monitora i bez pomjeranja očiju obrate pažnju na kvadrate. Kad smo to napravili, vidjeli smo obje frekvencije titranja u signalima u mozgu, ali zanimljivo, jedna od njih, na koju je osoba obraćala pažnju, imala je jače signale, što znači da postoji nešto u mozgu što obrađuje ove informacije i to je zapravo bila aktivacija čeone regije Čeona regija mozga odgovorna je za više kognitivne funkcije kod ljudi. Čeoni režanj izgleda funkcionira kao filter pokušavajući pustiti informacije samo iz onog kvadrata na koji obraćate pažnju, i pokušavajući inhibirati informacije iz ignoriranog kvadrata.
The filtering ability of the brain is indeed a key for attention, which is missing in some people, for example in people with ADHD. So a person with ADHD cannot inhibit these distractors, and that's why they can't focus for a long time on a single task. But what if this person could play a specific computer game with his brain connected to the computer, and then train his own brain to inhibit these distractors?
Mogućnost filtracije mozga je ključ pažnje koji nedostaje u nekih ljudi, na primjer ljudi s ADHD-om. Ljudi s ADHD-om ne mogu inhibirati distrakciju i zato se ne mogu fokusirati dugo na jedan zadatak. Ali što ako ova osoba može igrati određenu računalnu igru dok je mozak spojen na računalo, i tako naučiti mozak da inhibira te distrakcije?
Well, ADHD is just one example. We can use these cognitive brain-machine interfaces for many other cognitive fields. It was just a few years ago that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost complete ability to speak. He could understand everybody, but there was no way to respond, even not writing because he was illiterate. So he passed away in silence. I remember thinking at that time: What if we could have a computer which could speak for him? Now, after years that I am in this field, I can see that this might be possible. Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns when people think about images or even letters, like the letter A generates a different brainwave pattern than the letter B, and so on. Could a computer one day communicate for people who can't speak? What if a computer can help us understand the thoughts of a person in a coma? We are not there yet, but pay close attention. We will be there soon.
ADHD je samo jedan primjer. Možemo koristiti ova kognitivna mozak-mašina sučelja za razna kognitivna polja. Prije nekoliko godina je moj djed imao moždani udar, i izgubio mogućnost govora. Mogao je razumjeti svakoga, ali nije mogao odgovoriti, čak ni napisati, bio je nepismen. Umro je u tišini. Sjećam se da sam tada razmišljao; što ako imamo računalo koje govori umjesto njega? Sad, nakon godina u ovom polju znanosti, vidim da je to možda i moguće. Zamislite da možete pronaći moždane valove kada ljudi misle o slikama ili slovima, na primjer, slovo A stvara drugačije moždane valove nego slovo B, i tako dalje. Može li računalo jednog dana komunicirati za ljude koji ne mogu? Što ako nam računalo može pomoći razumjeti misli osobe u komi? Nismo još došli do toga, ali obratite pažnju. Bit ćemo tamo ubrzo.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)