Dr. Ekaterina Denkova - Why Attention is Crucial for Memory and Mindfulness

Neuroscience Researcher Dr. Ekaterina Denkova discusses why attention is crucial for memory and mindfulness. Attention is the cornerstone of all cognitive activities, impacting our memory and mindfulness practices. Ekaterina explains how paying attention is essential for remembering and how our minds often wander, leading to distractions. She shares scientific studies that demonstrate how mindfulness can help us train our attention, reduce internal distractions, and enhance our cognitive control.

She highlights the importance of the default mode network in our brain and its role in mind wandering and memory. Through practical examples and research findings, she illustrates how mindfulness practices can attenuate this network's activity, helping us stay present and focused. Join her to learn more about the science behind attention and how mindfulness can transform our mental processes.

Learn more about Dr. Denkova Ekaterina

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Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Attention. It's a very importantprocess in everything that we
are doing, we cannot remembersomething if we're not paying
attention to it. So if there issomething happening, if someone
is telling you something, andthen few minutes later, that
person is asking your sake, oh,I don't remember. It's not

(00:25):
exactly that you don't remember,or I don't remember you didn't
pay or I didn't pay attention tothat specific moment. So
attention is really atfundamental it's really the
foundation of every cognitiveactivity. So basically, we need
to be present and pay attentionin order to open the horizon for

(00:48):
other things to happen, butusually and even during that
presentation. So there are somany studies, for instance, in
terms of for undergraduates, sowhen they're attending a
lecture, half of the time, yeah,they're paying attention to the
lecture. Half of the time,somewhere else. It's happening

(01:10):
to all of us. We are going to ameeting with a friend, half of
the time we are paying attentionthe other half, something else
is happening. So what is that?
Something else? It might bewe're not feeling well, so we're
paying attention to the feelingin the in the body. That's

(01:31):
normal. It's okay. That canhappen. It might be a noisy
environment. So we are payingattention to the noises around
us, and they're disturbing us,and that's that's distraction,
external. External distractionis not really allowing us to pay
attention. But one importantaspect is when the mind wanders

(01:54):
towards those internal thoughts,that's the more problematic we
are with a friend, but in ourthoughts, we're thinking about
that car accident in themorning, and no, we are not
paying attention to our friend.

(02:15):
And we did a very nice and Istudied just to show that basic
phenomenon. We were showingpeople pictures faces, and they
had to press a button. So that'svery simple experiment. I hope
that it's easy to understand. Sobasically showing faces, and
every time a face appear on thescreen, the person just need to

(02:36):
click. So faces click. Facesclick. Very simple, very simple
task, very repetitive task. Fromtime to time, the space is the
other way around, upside down,and during that time, you should
not press you should withholdyour response. What is

(02:57):
happening, because the task isvery repetitive. At some point,
we stopped paying attention. Weare even not seeing the face on
the screen because we areabsorbed by our internal
thoughts. And we saw in thebrain, there is a response,
basically the response in thebrain that reacts to faces now

(03:23):
it's attenuated, which means ourwe're perceptually decoupled. We
are even not seeing in front ofus, because our mind or our
attention is really orientedtowards ourselves or our
thoughts. And of course, thoseare like very simple examples.

(03:47):
They're maybe not so important,but maybe for people who have a
high demand jobs or they reallyneed to focus that that might
have consequences even driving.
We're driving and sometimes,because it's so automatic
process and repetitive, we startthinking about other things. We

(04:08):
are so absorbed that we evendon't see the cars passing us.
So sometimes, and that's how wecan get into a car accident. So
those are examples of how whenour attention shifts towards
those internal thoughts andengage with them in a

(04:28):
maladaptive, repetitive way,that might be problematic, but
there is a solution. We cannotice that and then turn our
attention to where it should be.
And so that's where I'm sayingand we consider mindfulness the
tool that will help us, becauseas during a mindfulness

(04:52):
practice, paying attention tothe breath, noticing when the
mind goes away, and gentlyreturning it back. So basically,
if we can train that capacity sothat would never be doing a
conversation with a friend, wecan remind ourselves that's my
dear friend. I need to payattention to my friend right

(05:16):
now. I will plan my my tripafter when I go home, but now
I'm with my friend, and I needto pay attention. So that's how
we are considering, or how weare trying to study what is

(05:36):
happening in the brain. Thenwhere we can notice that our
mind goes away and it's focusingon internal thoughts and
returning it back. And theirstudies that are done in
different aspects, there is aconsistent pattern that when the

(05:58):
mind goes away, there is anetwork. This is basically
different regions that aretalking to each other in a very
persistent way, and basicallythat network is also the network
that it's helping us remembermemories. So I'm hoping that I'm

(06:21):
now closing why I started withremembering. So remembering when
we're remembering and thinkingabout any future scenarios,
there are networks in the brainthat are working together. So
there is a specificconfiguration, and one aspect of
that configuration we are seeingit when the mind wanders and

(06:43):
goes away when it's not focusedat the task at hand. And so
that's just for probably, togive it the term. It's called
the default mode network. Sobasically it's, it's a network
of brain regions that are therewhen we think about past, when

(07:07):
we think about the future, andso during mind wandering, that
same network is so so engaged,which means it's really that
remembering, or the past thepast experiences that are
fueling so basically, they'rethe fuel to mind wandering, and
so that's where the negativeaspect is. I started and said,

(07:30):
remembering is really good. Itcan help us in a constructive
way, but if we're engaging inmaladaptive strategy, especially
when we have something else todo, when the task at hand is
something else, having a niceconversation with a friend, then
it's problematic, because thenwe are even not noticing the

(07:51):
person in front of us. We arereally in our internal,
repetitive thinking. And sothat's one network that we are
identifying during mind one,there are others. As I said, the
brain works in all of thenetworks are involved in just
the configuration that it'sdifferent. And so what we what

(08:17):
we can see is that when we areasking people to do a focus
attention meditation, basicallythat network in the brain that
is for mind wandering. It'slosing its strength. It's

(08:38):
weakened. So that's a sign orsomething that we can say, okay,
when we're engaged in a focusattention meditation, we're
really strengthening thosecognitive processes that allows
us to have that awareness. Whatis happening, noticing the

(09:02):
wandering mind and returning itback, returning attention back
to that moment. And so there isnow neuroscientific evidence
that engaging in mindfulnesspractice helps with that
attenuates, basically attenuatesthe signal and the interactions

(09:27):
in those brain regions that arebasically the fuel of all our
preoccupations, ruminations andconcerns
and so, not only When we aredoing it. But now, what
mindfulness training that's tothe brain, and their studies
showing that when people justask to go and spontaneously lay

(09:54):
in a scanner, and their brainactivity is recorded, so
basically, they're laying likenothing. And. So they're asked
just to lie then and think abouteverything that comes to their
mind, before and after. Sobasically that the spontaneous
activity of the brain, we arenot engaging in everything. It's
spontaneously what is happening.
And then people are doing beforeand after, participation in the

(10:18):
mindfulness training, and whatis happening is that there is
evidence that, again, this samenetwork that I was telling was
really highly involved when themind wanders after mindfulness
training, it's again lesson. Andthere are other networks that

(10:40):
are about cognitive control andmeta awareness that are
basically trying to regulate soin very late terms. And I don't
want to make any speculations,but basically the translation of
all of that is that mindfulnesstraining can basically increase

(11:01):
that capacity of meta awarenessand control so that The internal
thoughts are not invading thepresent moment. You