Are Your Thoughts Your Friends?

STAN LAJUGIE explains the science behind focus and attention, and the role of meditation in helping us develop these vital mental skills.

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When we focus on one object, the brain mobilizes its resources to identify the target. Once identified, it has its aha moment, and it requires time to redirect them toward the next activity or target. This is called the attentional blink.

Helen Slagter at the University of Amsterdam found out that a 3-month intensive meditation course can shorten the attentional blink and improve the accuracy of attention. This suggests that meditation can help in developing a high level of awareness and a greater capacity to manage our limited resource of attention. This was observed when performing both repetitive and new tasks, meaning mental agility.

Unfocused 50% of the time

Richard Davidson found that, during sharp focus, key circuits of the prefrontal cortex synchronize with the object of attention¹ in a state he calls "phase-locking." As we focus on what we are learning, the brain maps that information onto what we already know, making new neural connections. We become more efficient at understanding, learning, and memorization.

The ability to stay focused on one target and ignore everything else is due to the brain's prefrontal circuitry, which boosts the strength of incoming signals to concentrate on what we want and dampens those we choose to ignore. Also, focus demands that we tune out our emotional distractions. So those who focus best are relatively immune to emotional turbulence, and remain unflustered in a crisis.

Whereas, when we lack focus, we store no memory of what we are learning. We are also more prone to mental or emotional agitation.