Attention represents an important function of the body in many ways. It has an impact on the ability of humans to survive.
What is attention?
Attention is the turning of thoughts toward particular feelings, actions, perceptions, or further thoughts. Attention is the turning of the thoughts towards certain feelings, actions, perceptions or further thoughts. It is a protective mechanism of the brain against overstimulation by external influences. Fixational and fluctuating attention are distinguished, each form being necessary for certain types of stimuli. In addition, attention is divided into auditory, visual, and motor attention according to the way the stimulus is received.
Function and task
Attention has the function of directing brain activity to specific stimuli. Evolutionarily biological, this ensured the survival of mankind. Attention directs perception to specific environmental stimuli, which can thus be recognized, assessed and processed. As an example, we can mention a Stone Age hunter whose attention directed perception to a sound in a thicket, which led to hunting success. In the same way, modern societies require human attention. In many situations, rapid perception of a situation, its assessment, and an appropriate response are important. By the attention-controlled turning of the perception the brain is protected from an overload by overstimulation. Every day it has to process a multitude of external and internal stimuli. If a person were to try to perceive all of them at the same time, meaningful and orderly reactions would no longer be possible. Attention therefore controls perception and directs it to important stimuli or stimuli that seem important at that moment. In daily life, attention is only attracted by things that have relevance for the respective person. Thus it is possible for two people in the same situation to perceive completely different things: while one observes the beautiful butterflies in the meadow, the other perceives the threatening wasp nest a few meters away in the same situation. Advertising takes advantage of this fact by using key stimuli to attract attention, which have been proven to attract the attention of a large number of people within the intended target group and are thus noticed. Focused attention is also known as concentration. Here, perception is directed specifically to one point, a single stimulus. All other environmental stimuli can be blanked out in this situation in order to analyze and process the focused stimulus without sources of interference. Especially in learning processes this focused attention is often of importance. In contrast to this is fluctuating attention. Here, the perception constantly moves from one environmental stimulus to the next in order to quickly grasp and process relevant stimuli. This form of attention is necessary, for example, in road traffic, when several relevant situations occur simultaneously. The brain must decide in very short intervals which of the situations are relevant to one’s actions and react accordingly.
Diseases and disorders
Many different disorders can affect attention. The causes of an attention disorder can be harmless and easily remedied, but they can also be serious and incurable. One widely noted disorder related to attention is ADHD attention deficit disorder. However, this is not a disorder of complete attention. Only focused attention, that is, prolonged concentration on a particular stimulus, is impaired in this disorder. In contrast, the fluctuating attention is strongly pronounced, which leads to the fact that the attention of the affected person is constantly directed to new stimuli. Other diseases can also have an effect on attention. In the case of a stroke or a cerebral hemorrhage, for example, the corresponding brain areas can be so severely damaged that they can no longer control attention. Those affected by dementia also often suffer from attention disorders. Similar to ADHD, these are manifested by inattention and absentmindedness, i.e. the lack of prolonged concentration on a particular stimulus.Forms of attention deficit disorder can also occur in depression. These manifest themselves on the one hand through a reduced ability to concentrate, and on the other hand the concentration of the person affected is often directed here to their own inner dilemma. Turning away from negative thoughts is very difficult for these patients and often only possible with the help of outsiders. Among the more harmless and remediable causes of attention deficit disorder is a deficiency of vitamins and trace elements. In particular, the B vitamins and the trace element iron are often mentioned at this point. By supplying the body with sufficient amounts of these substances, i.e. through a change in diet or dietary supplements, this form of attention deficit can be easily treated, in contrast to those caused by the brain. Low blood pressure can also have a negative effect on attention due to reduced cerebral blood flow. If this cause is remedied, the ability to concentrate also increases again. If attention is also differentiated according to the way in which the stimuli are received, further differentiations of attention disorders are possible. Not all areas of stimulus reception are equally disturbed. For example, there are patients who can attend to an auditory stimulus without difficulty over a long period of time, but whose visual perception is significantly impaired.
