Researchers at the Netherlands Institute of Neurology have discovered that a trained brain can quickly suppress the desire for distraction. The results of the research have been published magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Have you ever found yourself searching for your keys or your phone and eventually got distracted by a brightly colored object? This is called a “pop-up” and is often used to get people to pay attention to bright red road signs. However, it distracts us from our goals in life. Scientists say that We tried to find a way not to be distracted by such “windows”.
The researchers trained the monkeys to play a video game in which they searched for specific items among various items that acted as “pop-ups”. After training, the monkeys stopped looking in the direction of distractions.
As it turns out, after training the brain can suppress neural responses to such distractions. Responses to distracting colored stimuli were briefly heightened but quickly suppressed.
The researchers concluded that “the brain appears to perceive the presence of a distracting stimulus for a short time and then quickly suppress it so that it does not interfere with goal attainment.”