Neuroscience and the self-control of mood and attentiveness

By William Seidman Dr. Michael Posner, Oregon neuroscientist, was recently interviewed by Alvaro Fernandez on the neuroscience of attention/attentiveness and emotional self-regulation. Dr. Posner theorizes that there is a specific portion of the human brain that is used to allocate attention. From this attention comes “effortful control“: the ability to focus attention in order to accomplish a task.

• You can improve your ability to pay attention,  making that ability stronger and more effective.
• When you improve attention and attentiveness, performance improves.

We use this notion of attention to focus people on positive deviant content. This teaches people the content, and also teaches them how to attain improved attention. The combination of the two makes for much improved performance.]]>