The evolutionary part of the brain where focus is focused

New research into an ancient brain region suggests our ability to tune out the world is a biological gift that has been evolving for millions of years

Struggling with your attention span? There is an evolutionary tool for that—our brains!

Neuron

For No Distractions, I periodically run a search on the latest news articles and posts mentioning "focus" and/or "distraction." This summer, there is no lack of choices when it comes to attention in the classroom for the upcoming school year. (It is almost like the writers are trying to distract me into focusing on that.)

However, a Science Daily headline citing something much more ancient than a cellphone in the hands of a middle schooler really caught my eye: "Scientists discover ancient brain cells that help block distractions."

The subheading on the abstract continued to pique my interest: "Scientists have uncovered a hidden 'focus switch' in an ancient part of the brain that may hold new clues to treating ADHD."

Unlocking the 'focus switch'

The study came from Johns Hopkins University researchers who discovered that "the brain that exists across all vertebrates including humans, could be an initial step toward more targeted treatments for attention disorders."

"A hallmark of ADHD is that even faint distractors draw attention away—and that is exactly what we see here when these neurons are silenced," senior author and neuroscientist Shreesh Mysore said. "But the very next day, when the neurons are turned back on, the same animal can ignore distractors again, even very strong ones."

Mysore and the other researchers found that attention in mice performing human-like tasks is controlled by neurons in the brainstem, similar to all mammals, birds, and fish.

"If we really go back in evolution, for hundreds of millions of years, birds have had this ability, fish have had this ability. And they do not typically have a highly developed prefrontal cortex, so how does the brain solve this problem?" lead author Ninad Kothari, a postdoctoral fellow in Hopkins’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, said. "We were able to identify an evolutionarily old region in the brainstem which affords this ability."

The human element 

"When we inactivate these neurons, the mice become hyper-distractible," Kothari said. 

"All the evidence to date suggests that these neurons exist in humans too," Mysore said. "But are they responsible for selective spatial attention in humans? An exciting hypothesis is that they play a crucial role." 

The researchers focused on the real-world implications this finding could have on people with autism or ADHD.

I saw this as another example of how much focus and distraction are biologically built into our bodies. As I’ve journeyed along this No Distractions path many focused moments I’m learning about seem to start deep down in someone’s subconscious.

It looks like we are all just animalistic, especially when distracted.