What happens in your brain when you pay attention? | Mehdi Ordikhani-Seyedlar

Translator: Carme Paz Reviewer: Mario Cal

Paying close attention to something:

Poñede moita atención en algo:

Not that easy, is it?

Non é fácil, non?

It's because our attention is pulled in so many different directions at a time,

É porque a nosa atención vai cara a distintas direccións ao mesmo tempo

and it's in fact pretty impressive if you can stay focused.

e, de feito, é bastante impresionante se conseguides centrarvos en algo.

Many people think that attention is all about what we are focusing on,

Moita xente cre que a atención trata daquilo no que tratamos de concentrarnos,

but it's also about what information our brain is trying to filter out.

pero tamén trata da información que o cerebro tenta filtrar.

There are two ways you direct your attention.

Hai dous xeitos de centrar a atención.

First, there's overt attention.

Primeiro, coa atención directa.

In overt attention, you move your eyes towards something

Na atención directa, movedes os ollos cara a algo

in order to pay attention to it.

para poñer atención.

Then there's covert attention.

Tamén está a atención indirecta.

In covert attention, you pay attention to something,

Na atención indirecta, poñedes a atención en algo

but without moving your eyes.

mais sen mover os ollos.

Think of driving for a second.

Pensade un segundo en conducir.

Your overt attention, your direction of the eyes,

A vosa atención directa, a dirección dos ollos,

are in front,

está en fronte,

but that's your covert attention

pero a vosa atención indirecta

which is constantly scanning the surrounding area,

está constantemente buscando ao redor,

where you don't actually look at them.

a onde, de feito, non mirades.

I'm a computational neuroscientist,

Son neurocientífico computacional,

and I work on cognitive brain-machine interfaces,

e traballo con interfaces cognitivas cerebro-máquina,

or bringing together the brain and the computer.

é dicir, xuntando o cerebro e o ordenador.

I love brain patterns.

Encántanme os padróns cerebrais.

Brain patterns are important for us

Os padróns cerebrais son importantes

because based on them we can build models for the computers,

porque baseándonos neles construímos modelos para ordenadores,

and based on these models

e baseándonos neses modelos

computers can recognize how well our brain functions.

os ordenadores poden recoñecer como funciona o cerebro.

And if it doesn't function well,

E se non funciona ben,

then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devices

eses ordenadores pódense usar como dispositivos de asistencia

for therapies.

para terapias.

But that also means something,

Mais tamén implica algo,

because choosing the wrong patterns

porque elixir os padróns errados

will give us the wrong models

dános modelos errados

and therefore the wrong therapies.

e, por tanto, terapias erradas.

Right?

Non?

In case of attention,

No caso da atención,

the fact that we can

o feito de podermos

shift our attention not only by our eyes

cambiar a nosa atención non só cos nosos ollos

but also by thinking --

senón tamén co pensamento

that makes covert attention an interesting model for computers.

fai da atención indirecta un modelo interesante para ordenadores.

So I wanted to know what are the brainwave patterns

Así que eu quería saber cales son os padróns cerebrais

when you look overtly or when you look covertly.

ao mirar directamente ou ao mirar indirectamente.

I set up an experiment for that.

Deseñei un experimento.

In this experiment there are two flickering squares,

Nel, hai dous cadrados que chiscan,

one of them flickering at a slower rate than the other one.

un deles chisca máis devagar có outro.

Depending on which of these flickers you are paying attention to,

Dependendo de en que cadrado poñades a atención,

certain parts of your brain will start resonating in the same rate

certas partes do cerebro resoarán ao mesmo ritmo

as that flickering rate.

do cadrado.

So by analyzing your brain signals,

Así, ao analizar os sinais do cerebro,

we can track where exactly you are watching

podemos rastrexar exactamente onde estades mirando

or you are paying attention to.

ou poñendo a atención.

So to see what happens in your brain when you pay overt attention,

Para ver que ocorre no cerebro cando se pon atención directa,

I asked people to look directly in one of the squares

pedinlles a unhas persoas que mirasen directamente un dos cadrados

and pay attention to it.

e se concentrasen nel.

In this case, not surprisingly, we saw that these flickering squares

Neste caso, prediciblemente, vimos que os cadrados que chiscaban

appeared in their brain signals

aparecían nos sinais cerebrais

which was coming from the back of their head,

que viñan da parte de atrás da cabeza,

which is responsible for the processing of your visual information.

que é a responsable de procesar a información visual.

But I was really interested

Pero interesoume moito

to see what happens in your brain when you pay covert attention.

ver o que ocorre no cerebro ao poñer atención indirecta.

So this time I asked people to look in the middle of the screen

Desta vez, pedinlle á xente que mirase para o centro da pantalla,

and without moving their eyes,

e sen mover os ollos,

to pay attention to either of these squares.

que se concentrase en calquera deses cadrados.

When we did that,

Cando o fixemos

we saw that both of these flickering rates appeared in their brain signals,

vimos que ambos os cadrados aparecían nos sinais cerebrais

but interestingly,

mais, curiosamente,

only one of them, which was paid attention to,

un deles, ao que se lle poñía atención,

had stronger signals,

tiña sinais máis fortes,

so there was something in the brain

así que había algo no cerebro

which was handling this information

que manexaba esa información

so that thing in the brain was basically the activation of the frontal area.

e ese algo era basicamente a activación da área frontal.

The front part of your brain is responsible

A parte frontal do cerebro é a responsable

for higher cognitive functions as a human.

das funcións cognitivas superiores que temos como humanos.

The frontal part, it seems that it works as a filter

A parte frontal parece que traballa como un filtro

trying to let information come in only from the right flicker

que intenta que a información entre só desde o cadrado

that you are paying attention to

en que nos concentramos

and trying to inhibit the information coming from the ignored one.

e intenta inhibir a información que vén do cadrado que ignoramos.

The filtering ability of the brain is indeed a key for attention,

A habilidade de filtrar do cerebro é unha chave para a atención,

which is missing in some people,

que non teñen algunhas persoas,

for example in people with ADHD.

por exemplo as que teñen TDAH.

So a person with ADHD cannot inhibit these distractors,

Unha persoa con TDAH non pode inhibir eses distractores,

and that's why they can't focus for a long time on a single task.

e esa é a razón pola que non se pode concentrar nunha tarefa moito tempo.

But what if this person

Pero que ocorrería se esa persoa

could play a specific computer game

puidese xogar a un videoxogo específico

with his brain connected to the computer,

co cerebro conectado ao ordenador

and then train his own brain

e adestrar o seu propio cerebro

to inhibit these distractors?

para inhibir eses distractores?

Well, ADHD is just one example.

Ben, o TDAH é só un exemplo.

We can use these cognitive brain-machine interfaces

Podemos usar esas interfaces cognitivas máquina-cerebro

for many other cognitive fields.

para outros campos cognitivos.

It was just a few years ago

Hai algúns anos,

that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost complete ability to speak.

o meu avó tivo un derramo e perdeu a capacidade de falar.

He could understand everybody, but there was no way to respond,

Podía entender todo, pero non podía responder,

even not writing because he was illiterate.

nin por escrito, porque era analfabeto.

So he passed away in silence.

Así que morreu en silencio.

I remember thinking at that time:

Lémbrome de pensar daquela:

What if we could have a computer

E se tivésemos un ordenador

which could speak for him?

que puidese falar por el?

Now, after years that I am in this field,

Agora, despois de anos neste campo,

I can see that this might be possible.

vexo que iso podería ser posible.

Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns

Imaxinade que podemos atopar padróns cerebrais

when people think about images or even letters,

cando a xente pensa en imaxes ou mesmo en letras,

like the letter A generates a different brainwave pattern

como que a letra A xere un padrón cerebral diferente

than the letter B, and so on.

da letra B, e así.

Could a computer one day communicate for people who can't speak?

Podería un día un ordenador comunicar pola xente que non pode falar?

What if a computer

E se un ordenador

can help us understand the thoughts of a person in a coma?

pode axudarnos a entender os pensamentos dunha persoa en coma?

We are not there yet,

Aínda non chegamos aí

but pay close attention.

pero poñede atención.

We will be there soon.

Estaremos aí ben axiña.

Thank you.

Grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)