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.
Usmeravanje pažnje na nešto nije tako lako, zar ne? To je zato što se naša pažnja odvlači u toliko različitih pravaca istovremeno i zapravo je prilično impresivno ako 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.
Mnogi ljudi misle da se pažnja svodi na ono na šta se fokusiramo, ali takođe se odnosi i na to koje informacije naš mozak pokušava da odstrani filtriranjem.
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 na koje usmeravate pažnju. Kao prvo, postoji primetna pažnja. Kod primetne pažnje, pomerate oči ka nečemu da biste usmerili pažnju na to. Zatim, postoji neprimetna pažnja. Kod neprimetne pažnje usmeravate pažnju na nešto, ali bez pomeranja očiju. Pomislite na trenutak na vožnju. Vaša primetna pažnja, usmerenost vaših očiju je ispred, ali vaša neprimetna pažnja neprekidno pregleda okolinu, gde zapravo ne gledate.
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 kompjuterski neuronaučnik i radim na kognitivnim interfejsima mozga i mašine, ili na povezivanju mozga i kompjutera. Obožavam moždane obrasce. Moždani obrasci su važni za nas jer na osnovu njih možemo graditi modele za kompjutere, a na osnovu tih modela kompjuteri mogu prepoznati koliko dobro funkcioniše naš mozak. A ako ne funkcioniše dobro, onda se sami ti kompjuteri mogu koristiti kao pomagala u terapiji. Ali to takođe podrazumeva nešto, jer će nam odabir pogrešnih obrazaca dati pogrešne modele i, prema tome, pogrešne terapije. Zar ne? U slučaju pažnje, činjenica da možemo preusmeriti svoju pažnju ne samo očima već i razmišljanjem - to čini neprimetnu pažnju zanimljivim modelom za kompjutere.
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.
Hteo sam da znam kakvi su obrasci moždanih talasa kada pogledate sa primetne i neprimetne strane. Osmislio sam eksperiment za to. U ovom eksperimentu postoje dva kvadrata koji trepere, pri čemu jedan od njih treperi sporije nego drugi. U zavisnosti od toga na koje treperenje obraćate pažnju, određeni delovi vašeg mozga počinju da usklađuju brzinu sa brzinom tog treperenja. Tako, analiziranjem vaših moždanih signala možemo pratiti gde tačno gledate ili usmeravate 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 bih video šta se dešava u vašem mozgu kada usmeravate pažnju primetno, zatražio sam od ljudi da direktno gledaju u jedan od kvadrata i usmere pažnju na njega. U ovom slučaju, što nije iznenađenje, videli smo da su se ti treperavi kvadrati pojavili u njihovim moždanim signalima koji su dolazili iz zadnjeg dela glave, koji je odgovoran za obradu vizuelnih informacija. Međutim, zaista me je zanimalo da vidim šta se dešava u mozgu kada obraćate pažnju neprimetno. Ovoga puta sam tražio od ljudi da gledaju sredinu ekrana i da, bez pomeranja očiju, usmere pažnju na bilo koji od ovih kvadrata. Kada smo to uradili, videli smo da su se obe brzine treperenja pojavile u moždanim signalima, ali interesantno je da je samo jedan od njih, onaj na koji je usmerena pažnja, imao jače signale, tako da je bilo nešto u mozgu što je baratalo ovom informacijom, a to nešto u mozgu u suštini aktivacija frontalne oblasti. Prednji deo vašeg mozga je odgovoran za više kognitivne funkcije kao ljudskog bića. Čini se da prednji deo funkcioniše kao filter koji pokušava da propusti informacije samo iz desnog treperenja na koji obraćate pažnju i da blokira informacije koje pristižu iz ignorisanog treperenja.
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?
Sposobnost mozga da filtrira je u stvari ključna za pažnju, a ona nedostaje kod nekih ljudi, na primer, kod ljudi sa poremećajem pažnje, ADHD-om. Tako osoba sa poremećajem ADHD ne može da blokira te ometače pažnje i zato se ne može fokusirati duže vreme na jedan zadatak. Ali šta bi bilo kada bi takva osoba mogla da igra posebnu kompjutersku igru pri čemu joj je mozak povezan sa kompjuterom, a zatim uvežba svoj mozak da blokira te smetnje za pažnju?
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.
Pa, ADHD je samo jedan od primera. Možemo koristiti ove kognitivne interfejse mozga i mašine za mnoga druga kognitivna polja. Pre svega nekoliko godina, moj deda je pretrpeo šlog i sasvim je izgubio sposobnost govora. Mogao je svakog da razume, ali nije bilo načina da odgovori, čak ni da napiše jer je bio nepismen. Stoga je preminuo u tišini. Sećam se da sam pomislio u to vreme šta bi bilo kada bismo imali kompjuter koji bi mogao da govori umesto njega. Danas, nakon mnogo godina rada u ovom polju, vidim da je to moguće. Zamislite ako bismo mogli da pronađemo obrasce moždanih talasa kada ljudi razmišljaju o slikama ili čak o slovima, kao što slovo A proizvodi drugačiji obrazac moždanih talasa od slova B i tako dalje. Da li bi kompjuter jednog dana mogao da komunicira umesto ljudi koji ne mogu da govore? Šta bi bilo kada bi kompjuter mogao da nam pomogne da razumemo misli osobe u komi? Nismo još dotle stigli, ali dobro obratite pažnju. Stići ćemo uskoro.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)