What is it about?
We live in a world of distractions from a variety of sources including phone calls, texting, notifications from online services, and advertisements. Distractions affect our timekeeping abilities. Timekeeping is also affected in disorders such as ADHD, Depression, Schizophrenia, and Parkinson. We evaluated timekeeping abilities of rats when distracted by stimuli associated with food, and the role of specific brain chemicals in this process.
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Why is it important?
Results indicate that distracters capture the attention of the subjects long after their offset, and their effect on timekeeping depends both on their relative novelty and significance. Brain chemicals affect this process in a fashion also dependent on the relative novelty and significance of the distracters.
Perspectives
Time is money. Using time productively is rewarded by society. Distractions affect our timekeeping abilities. We live in a world of distractions from phone calls, texting, notifications from online services, and advertisements. Keeping tasks flowing in a timely manner is increasingly difficult. To help with these issues, one would need to understand the behavioral and physiological mechanisms underlying interval timing and attention to time. This paper helps elucidate these mechanisms and may contribute to developing new treatment strategies for disorders in which attention is impaired, such as ADHD, Depression, and Schizophrenia.
Catalin Buhusi
Utah State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: mPFC catecholamines modulate attentional capture by appetitive distracters and attention to time in a peak-interval procedure in rats., Behavioral Neuroscience, July 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/bne0000528.
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