Abstract
Today, as media and technology multitasking becomes pervasive, the majority of young people face a challenge regarding their attentional engagement (that is, how well their attention can be maintained). While various approaches to improve attentional engagement exist, it is difficult to produce an effect in younger people, due to the inadequate attraction of these approaches themselves. Here, we show that a single 30-min engagement with an attention restoration theory (ART)-inspired closed-loop software program (Virtual ART) delivered on a consumer-friendly virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) could lead to improvements in both general attention level and the depth of engagement in young university students. These improvements were associated with positive changes in both behavioral (response time and response time variability) and key electroencephalography (EEG)-based neural metrics (frontal midline theta inter-trial coherence and parietal event-related potential P3b). All the results were based on the comparison of the standard Virtual ART tasks (control group, n = 15) and closed-loop Virtual ART tasks (treatment group, n = 15). This study provides the first case of EEG evidence of a VR-HMD-based closed-loop ART intervention generating enhanced attentional engagement.
Highlights
IntroductionAs media and technology multitasking becomes pervasive, the majority of young people face a challenge regarding their attentional engagement (that is, how well their attention can be maintained) [1]
Today, as media and technology multitasking becomes pervasive, the majority of young people face a challenge regarding their attentional engagement [1]
Virtual attention restoration theory (ART) is a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-head-mounted display (HMD)) software developed at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU)’s bio-circuits and system laboratory to assess the effectiveness of ART with a high degree of ecological validity and experimental control
Summary
As media and technology multitasking becomes pervasive, the majority of young people face a challenge regarding their attentional engagement (that is, how well their attention can be maintained) [1]. A study of min-by-min observations showed that the typical university student could not focus on their work for more than 3 to 5 min even during a short 15-min class session, because their minds were still thinking about what might be occurring in virtual worlds, coaxing them to get back to the smartphone, tablet, or laptop to “check in” [2] Such constant attempts to multitask create challenges to the development of their cognitive control functions [3,4,5], and have a negative impact on their real-world activities, including bad sleep [6], poorer school/workplace performance [7,8], and an increased level of stress and anxiety [9,10]. Apart from meditation, attempts to boost attentional engagement in a drug-free manner involved physical exercise, cognitive training, video games, brain stimulation, and exposure to nature [12] All of these approaches are building on the foundation that our brain modifies itself—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity in the context of cognitive neuroscience [12,13].
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