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Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering

Absent minded people are not under the control of task-relevant stimuli. According to the Neuroenergetics Theory of attention (NeT), this lack of control is often due to fatigue of the relevant processing units in the brain caused by insufficient resupply of the neuron's preferred fuel, lactate...

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Autor principal: Killeen, Peter R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3696720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23847559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00373
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author Killeen, Peter R.
author_facet Killeen, Peter R.
author_sort Killeen, Peter R.
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description Absent minded people are not under the control of task-relevant stimuli. According to the Neuroenergetics Theory of attention (NeT), this lack of control is often due to fatigue of the relevant processing units in the brain caused by insufficient resupply of the neuron's preferred fuel, lactate, from nearby astrocytes. A simple drift model of information processing accounts for response-time statistics in a paradigm often used to study inattention, the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). It is suggested that errors and slowing in this fast-paced, response-engaging task may have little to due with inattention. Slower-paced and less response-demanding tasks give greater license for inattention—aka absent-mindedness, mind-wandering. The basic NeT is therefore extended with an ancillary model of attentional drift and recapture. This Markov model, called NEMA, assumes probability λ of lapses of attention from 1 s to the next, and probability α of drifting back to the attentional state. These parameters measure the strength of attraction back to the task (α), or away to competing mental states or action patterns (λ); their proportion determines the probability of the individual being inattentive at any point in time over the long run. Their values are affected by the fatigue of the brain units they traffic between. The deployment of the model is demonstrated with a data set involving paced responding.
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spelling pubmed-36967202013-07-11 Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering Killeen, Peter R. Front Psychol Psychology Absent minded people are not under the control of task-relevant stimuli. According to the Neuroenergetics Theory of attention (NeT), this lack of control is often due to fatigue of the relevant processing units in the brain caused by insufficient resupply of the neuron's preferred fuel, lactate, from nearby astrocytes. A simple drift model of information processing accounts for response-time statistics in a paradigm often used to study inattention, the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). It is suggested that errors and slowing in this fast-paced, response-engaging task may have little to due with inattention. Slower-paced and less response-demanding tasks give greater license for inattention—aka absent-mindedness, mind-wandering. The basic NeT is therefore extended with an ancillary model of attentional drift and recapture. This Markov model, called NEMA, assumes probability λ of lapses of attention from 1 s to the next, and probability α of drifting back to the attentional state. These parameters measure the strength of attraction back to the task (α), or away to competing mental states or action patterns (λ); their proportion determines the probability of the individual being inattentive at any point in time over the long run. Their values are affected by the fatigue of the brain units they traffic between. The deployment of the model is demonstrated with a data set involving paced responding. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3696720/ /pubmed/23847559 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00373 Text en Copyright © 2013 Killeen. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
spellingShingle Psychology
Killeen, Peter R.
Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title_full Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title_fullStr Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title_full_unstemmed Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title_short Absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
title_sort absent without leave; a neuroenergetic theory of mind wandering
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3696720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23847559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00373
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