Sustaining attention to simple tasks: A meta-analytic review of the neural mechanisms of vigilant attention.

Abstract

Maintaining attention for more than a few seconds is essential for mastering everyday life. Yet, our ability to stay focused on a particular task is limited, resulting in well-known performance decrements with increasing time on task. Intriguingly, such decrements are even more likely if the task is cognitively simple and repetitive. The attentional function that enables our prolonged engagement in intellectually unchallenging, uninteresting activities has been termed “vigilant attention.” Here we synthesized what we have learnt from functional neuroimaging about the mechanisms of this essential mental faculty. To this end, a quantitative meta-analysis of pertinent neuroimaging studies was performed, including supplementary analyses of moderating factors. Furthermore, we reviewed the available evidence on neural time-on-task effects, additionally considering information obtained from patients with focal brain damage. Integrating the results of both meta-analysis and review, a set of mainly right-lateralized brain regions was identified that may form the core network subserving vigilant attention in humans, including dorsomedial, mid- and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, parietal areas (intraparietal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction), and subcortical structures (cerebellar vermis, thalamus, putamen, midbrain). We discuss the potential functional roles of different nodes of this network as well as implications of our findings for a theoretical account of vigilant attention. It is conjectured that sustaining attention is a multi-component, non-unitary mental faculty, involving a mixture of (i) sustained/recurrent processes subserving task-set/arousal maintenance and (ii) transient processes subserving the target-driven reorienting of attention. Finally, limitations of previous studies are considered and suggestions for future research are provided.

Interpersonal early‐life trauma alters amygdala connectivity and sustained attention performance

“…In both clinical and nonclinical populations, traditional stimulus‐evoked analyses do not typically identify the amygdala as a region involved in sustained attention (Esterman, Noonan, Rosenberg, & DeGutis, 2013; Langner & Eickoff, 2013; Sarter, Givens, & Bruno, 2001; see Fleck et al., 2012 for an exception). However, functional connectivity analyses provide a complementary analytic approach to activation analyses, which focus on brain activation patterns to rare target or error events in sustained attention tasks.…”

Exploring prefrontal cortex functions in healthy humans by transcranial electrical stimulation

“…The prefrontal cortex is a compartment of the human brain involved in highly diverse processes, ranging from cognition, motivation, emotion, and complex motor activity to social interactions [1][2][3][4][5][6] . Disturbances of prefrontal functions are involved in a multitude of neuropsychiatric diseases, including depression, schizophrenia, addiction, dementia, and Parkinson´s disease [7][8][9][10][11] .…”

A Neural Model of Mind Wandering

“…As a consequence, our model proposes a fundamental difference between an exploratory "off-focus" state and active mind wandering. Attention is limited in duration and constant re-engagement or refocusing of the system is required, previously described as an "endogeneously controlled refresh system" [34]. Thus, the focus of attention is periodically broadened, accompanied by a more exploratory state reflected in higher levels of tonic norepinephrine and, hence, high neural gain (Figure 1, top).…”