Neurological System and Movement Control: The Role of Attention

Neurological System and Movement Control: The Role of Attention

This section focuses on the neurological system, specifically the brain's relationship with movement control, emphasizing attentional aspects and stress. While some anatomy and physiology will be covered later (sensory structures, brain areas), the immediate focus is on processing movement-related information, building upon the previous discussion of processing stages.

Understanding Attention

• Definition of Attention: Attention is best understood as focus. It is a mental resource used to direct perception towards the most important pieces of information.
• Attention as a Limited Resource:
  • Attention is a limited pool; humans can only pay attention to a finite amount of information at any given time.
  • Focusing on one thing inherently limits focus on something else.
• Divided Attention and its Costs:
  • Dividing attention between multiple tasks comes at a price, often reducing the effectiveness of secondary tasks.
  • Example: Walking and Talking Study (Grad School Research):
    • Objective: Investigate how attention impacts walking (gait) in older adults.
    • Methodology: Participants walked along a pathway while their gait parameters (speed, step length) were measured. Simultaneously, they were asked to answer questions.
    • Simple Secondary Task (e.g., "Name colors of the rainbow," "Name fruits and vegetables"): Gait parameters were largely unaffected, demonstrating good split attention.
    • Medium Secondary Task (e.g., "Name states West of the Mississippi"): Gait slowed down, indicating that more attention redirected to the harder cognitive task impacted the primary movement task.
    • Hard Secondary Task (e.g., "Name leaders of the Soviet Union"): Gait was severely impacted, with some participants stopping walking altogether to focus on the question. This illustrates that as a primary task (movement) or secondary task (cognitive) becomes more complex, the other task suffers significantly.
  • Practical Implication for Coaching/Teaching: Be mindful of how much information learners or athletes are asked to attend to simultaneously. Overloading attention with too many cues (e.g., "pay attention to this, and that, and that") negatively impacts actual movement performance. There is a neurological limit to how much information can be processed effectively at once.

Brain's Management of Attention in Movement Scenarios

In any movement situation, the brain must rapidly manage and shift attention across four types of information:

1. External Environment: Information outside the body (e.g., ball direction, wind, opponent's actions).
2. Own Actions/Internal State: What the body is currently doing and its position (e.g., "Am I in a position to catch the ball? Am I balanced?").
3. Future Movement Plans: What action to take next (e.g., "Am I going to catch, duck, or run?"). This involves neurological planning for an appropriate response.
4. Other External Cues: Additional information not directly specific to the immediate movement but relevant (e.g., coach's instructions, referee's whistle, crowd noise).

• Rapid Shifting: Effective and efficient movers (e.g., athletes) must learn to shift their attention instantaneously between these different information sources.
• Role of Practice: Repetition and practice train the brain and nervous system to identify and prioritize the most important information at any given moment, enabling the most effective and appropriate movement responses. This involves learning through both successful and unsuccessful attempts.

Types of Attention Processing

1. Parallel Processing

• Definition: The ability to process multiple streams of sensory information simultaneously.
• Examples:
  • Stroop Effect (Visual):
    • Demonstrates how we process both the word itself and the color in which it is presented in parallel.
    • When there is a mismatch (e.g., the word "BLUE" printed in red ink), processing speed is slowed because the brain receives conflicting information that doesn't align with expectations. If the word "BLUE" were in blue ink, the response would be faster due to compatibility.
  • Cocktail Party Phenomenon (Auditory):
    • In a noisy environment (like a party), you can focus on one conversation (e.g., with Eric) while other ambient noise becomes background "wah wah wah" sounds.
    • However, if a meaningful sound, such as your own name ("Kovacs"), is spoken in the background, your attention is immediately pulled to it, and you can suddenly process that specific information from the previously indistinct noise.
    • This shows parallel processing of background noise, with attention redirecting when a relevant stimulus is detected.

2. Inattentional Blindness

• Definition: A phenomenon where, when attention is focused on one particular aspect of the environment, obvious external stimuli might be missed, even if they are directly in the line of sight.
• Example: Driving: While driving, if your attention is redirected (e.g., an occupant yells in the backseat, or you are distracted by a cell phone conversation), you might fail to see an obvious object in front of the car (e.g., another vehicle, a deer), potentially leading to accidents.
• Implication: Cell phone use while driving is dangerous because it redirects attention, making individuals neurologically "blind" to critical visual information. Practice helps train the nervous system to avoid ignoring crucial information in complex movement scenarios.

3. Sustained Attention

• Definition: The ability to maintain attention and focus for an extended period.
• Challenges: Neurologically, sustaining high levels of attention becomes increasingly difficult over time.
• Attention Span Limit: The approximate ceiling for strong attentional capacity is around $45$ minutes. After this period, it becomes significantly harder to maintain focus, even for highly motivated individuals.
• Factors Influencing Sustained Attention:
  • Motivation: Higher motivation to learn or perform leads to longer sustained attention.
  • Arousal (Central Nervous System Activation):
    • Defined as the level of activation of the central nervous system.
    • Low arousal (e.g., early morning classes at $8$ AM) makes sustained attention difficult because the CNS is not at peak activation.
    • High arousal (e.g., excessive caffeine) can also impair attention.
    • Arousal's role in movement will be further explored in subsequent lectures.
  • Fatigue: Physical and mental fatigue reduce the capacity for sustained attention.
  • Environmental Aspects: Distractions (e.g., a tapping pen, phone use by others) can make it harder to sustain attention.
• Practical Implication for Coaching/Teaching: Be realistic about the attentional demands placed on learners or athletes. Expecting two hours of sustained, intense focus is neurologically impossible. Adjust teaching and practice methods to account for natural attentional limits.

4. Controlled Processing

• Definition: Volitional (conscious) and effortful processing of information, where the individual is aware of needing to focus. It requires significant directed attention.
• Characteristics:
  • Awareness: Individuals are conscious of focusing.
  • Effort: Requires mental energy and effort.
  • Slower: Generally slower than automatic processing.
• Examples: Learning a new drill (watching a coach, listening to instructions, consciously trying to perform the movement correctly), taking notes during a lecture.
• Effection: This type of processing can lead to mental fatigue, explaining why sustaining attention in a demanding class for more than $45$ minutes becomes challenging.

5. Automatic Processing

• Definition: Unconscious, involuntary, and fast processing of information that does not require direct or significant attentional effort. It often occurs in parallel with other conscious processes.
• Characteristics:
  • Unconscious: Individuals are not typically aware of the processing occurring.
  • Involuntary: Happens without conscious control.
  • Faster: Much quicker than controlled processing.
  • Parallel: Can occur simultaneously with other mental activities.
• Examples: Monitoring room temperature, largely ignoring ambient crowd noise during a competitive event.
• Achieving Automaticity: Requires extensive repetition and practice.
  • Training sensory structures and systems allows the brain to take in and utilize information without explicit attention.
  • A novice athlete exposed to a large crowd might be distracted by the noise, but with continued practice and exposure, the crowd noise becomes background information, processed automatically without conscious redirection of attention.
• Importance for Expert Performance: Automatic processing is a hallmark of experts or individuals in the autonomous stage of learning (the highest stage of motor skill acquisition). In such cases, movements appear to be performed effortlessly, without much conscious focus or attention. Practice, therefore, is crucial not just for skill development but also for training the nervous system to efficiently process sensory information in a directed and appropriate manner.