User:Mckaymclelland/sandbox

Neural Physiology

The Prefrontal Cortex Basal Ganglia model of working memory states that the prefrontal cortex works hand-in-hand with the basal ganglia to accomplish the tasks of working memory. There have been many studies that have shown this to be the case. One study used ablation techniques in patients who had suffered from seizures and had damage to the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. Researchers found that damage done to these areas of the brain resulted in decreased patients’ abilities to carry out the executive function portion of working memory.

Default mode network

The default mode network, a web of brain regions that are consistently co-active when one is in a resting state, is thought to be involved in mind-wandering and internally directed thought.although recent work has challenged this assumption..


 * 1) ADHD and mind-wandering

Mental disorders, such as ADHD, also go along with changes in different aspects of mind-wandering. Mental disorders, such as ADHD, are linked to mind-wandering. Seli et. al. found that spontaneous mind-wandering, the uncontrolled or unwarranted shifting of attention, is a characteristic of those who have ADHD. They note that deliberate mind-wandering, or the purposeful shifting of one's attention to different stimuli, is not a consistent characteristic of having ADHD.

Franklin et. al. conducted research and arrived at similar conclusions. In their study, they had college students take multiple psychological evaluations that gauge ADHD symptom strength. Then, they had the students read a portion of a general science textbook. At various times and at random intervals throughout their reading, they were prompted to answer a question that asked if, prior to the task interruption, their attention was were either on task, slightly on task, slightly off task, or off task. In addition, they were asked if they were aware, unaware, or neither aware nor unaware of their thoughts as they read. Finally, they were tasked to press the spacebar if they ever caught themselves mind-wandering. For a week after these assessments, the students used PDAs to answer follow-up questions that also gauged mind-wandering and awareness. This study’s results revealed that students with higher ADHD symptomology showed less task-oriented control than those with lower ADHD symptomology. Additionally, those with lower ADHD symptomology were more likely to engage in useful or deliberate mind-wandering and were more aware of their inattention. One of the strengths of this study is that is was performed in both lab and daily-life situations, giving it broad application.

It should be noted, however, that mind-wandering in and of itself is not necessarily indicative of attention deficiencies. Studies show that humans typically spend 25-50% of their time thinking about thoughts irrelevant to their current situations.

Mind-wandering when driving

Mind-wandering tends to occur during driving, reading and other activities where vigilance may be low[ citation needed] Mind-wandering tends to occur when one is driving. This is because driving becomes an almost automatic activity that requires minimal use of the task positive network, the brain network that is active when one is engaged in an attention-demanding activity.

Mind-wandering and saccades

Mind-wandering sometimes occurs as a result of saccades, which are the movement of one's eyes to different visual stimuli.

MEMORY MISATTRIBUTION

False memories are also related to flashbulb memories, which are memories of one’s circumstances during an emotionally charged event. Examples of flashbulb memories include how one remembers learning about the explosion of the Challenger shuttle, the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, or any other severely traumatic or outstanding event in a person’s life.

Early research done by Brown and Kulik (1977) found that flashbulb memories were similar to photographs because they could be described in accurate, vivid detail. In this study, participants described their circumstances about the moment they learned of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or any other similar traumatic event. Participants were able to describe what they were doing, things around them, and other details. However, this data was collected just once, years after the event, and Brown and Kulik were not able to compare the accuracy of those recollections to previous descriptions to see if their memories were indeed comparable to photographs.

Later studies used a research technique called repeated recall to gauge the accuracy of repeated descriptions of traumatic events. Neiser and Harsh (1992) gave participants a questionnaire about the 1986 Challenger explosion at two periods of time: the first was the day after the incident, and the second was three years after the incident. They found that there were often large discrepancies between the first and second descriptions. For example, many initially reported that they originally heard the news while sitting in class, but later said that they remember seeing the news on a television broadcast. While the participants were confident in their reports, it became evident that their memories of these emotionally charged events were prone to being manipulated with time, and that false memories of details make their way into memory One explanation of why false details exist in memories is that people are influenced by life experiences, and they therefore recall past memories with insights from other non-related events

Category:Neural Physiology Category:ADHD and Mind-wan