Voluntary Attention Research Articles

Voluntary auditory change: First-person access to agentive aspects of attention regulation

In perceptual psychology, audition and introspection have not yet received as much attention as other topics (e.g., vision) and methods (third-person paradigms). Practical examples and theoretical considerations show that it nevertheless seems promising to treat both topics in conjunction to gain insights into basic structures of attention regulation and respective agentive awareness. To this end, an empirical study on voluntary auditory change was conducted with a non-reactive first-person design. Data were analyzed with a mixed methods approach and compared with an analogous study on visual reversal. Qualitative hierarchical coding and explorative statistics yield a cross-modal replication of frequency patterns of mental activity as well as significant differences between the modalities. On this basis, the role of mental agency in perception is refined in terms of different levels of intention and discussed in the context of the philosophical mental action debate as well as of the Global Workspace/Working Memory account. As a main result, this work suggests the existence and structure of a gradual and developable agentive attention awareness on which voluntary attention regulation can build, and which justifies speaking, in a certain sense, of attentional self-perception.

Eye and hand movements disrupt attentional control.

Voluntary attentional control is the ability to selectively focus on a subset of visual information in the presence of other competing stimuli–a marker of cognitive control enabling flexible, goal-driven behavior. To test its robustness, we contrasted attentional control with the most common source of attentional orienting in daily life: attention shifts prior to goal-directed eye and hand movements. In a multi-tasking paradigm, human participants attended at a location while planning eye or hand movements elsewhere. Voluntary attentional control suffered with every simultaneous action plan, even under reduced task difficulty and memory load–factors known to interfere with attentional control. Furthermore, the performance cost was limited to voluntary attention: We observed simultaneous attention benefits at two movement targets without attentional competition between them. This demonstrates that the visual system allows for the concurrent representation of multiple attentional foci. Since attentional control is extremely fragile and dominated by premotor attention shifts, we propose that action-driven selection plays the superordinate role for visual selection.

Features of voluntary attention of adult Internet users

The article is devoted to a general problem of digital technologies’ influence on cognitive processes, viz. long-term changes in selective attention of adult Internet users. The study is based on two postulates of a psychologist, Lev Vygotsky: the idea of an indirect structure of cultural functions and a genetic law that determines its decay as a comeback to a simpler organizational level. The study was carried out through a comparative analysis of the voluntary attention of adults who prefer different code systems: traditional printed or modern digital. Conventionally, we divided the participants into 2 groups: the readers (n=50, aged 46.18±6,71, 21 males and 29 females) and the Internet users (n=50, aged 45.38±5,86, 21 males and 29 females). The parameters were estimated via “The arrangement of the numbers” test. As starting points, we took the average results established in the pre-digital era, on one hand; and the indicators of attention of young, active Internet users (to clarify the results of the study, an additional group was comprised), on the other hand. The revealed empirical facts showed that the voluntary attention is significantly better in the group of the readers (p≤0.01). Their indicators are close to the norm of the “pre-digital” people. The indicators of the Internet users are closer to the one of young Internet users, both in accuracy (p≤0.05) and distribution (р>0.05). We suggest positing a significant deterioration of selective attention as a cognitive deformation phenomenon, which is expressed in the regression of higher mental functions to its more primitive levels

Риск формирования когнитивной недостаточности у младших школьников в результате дефицита элементов и витамина D

Objective. To evaluate the impact of vitamin and mineral status on the cognitive development of children aged 7–8 years. Patients and methods. This observational, analytical, cross-sectional study included randomly selected healthy children aged 7–8 residing in Khabarovsk region (n = 60). Study participants were assigned to one of the two groups after assessment of their cognitive abilities (verbal and logical thinking, short-term memory, voluntary attention, and fine motor skills). Group 1 included 30 children with a low cognitive profile, whereas Group 2 comprised 30 children with normal mental development. We measured their serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and minerals (Сu, Zn, Mg, Se, Ca) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results. Children from Group 1 demonstrated lower serum levels of Cu, Zn, and vitamin D compared to those in Group 2 (p < 0.05). Higher levels of Mg and Zn correlated with better verbal and logical thinking (r = 0.9 and r = 0.46, respectively). Higher serum concentrations of Mg, Zn, Ca, and D were associated with improved mnestic parameters (r = 0.36, r = 0.43, r = 0.36, r = 0.37, respectively). We found that optimal levels of Se, Cu, and vitamin D ensured better attention (r = 0.38, r = 0.43, r = 0.43, respectively). The relative risk analysis also indicates that there is a positive correlation between mineral and vitamin D deficiency and the probability of cognitive developmental abnormalities in children. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate potential negative effects of mineral and vitamin D deficiency on intellectual development of children. Key words: vitamin D, primary school children, cognitive abilities, mineral status

Multivariate analysis of online learning within the framework of systematic approach: aspects of improving the quality of online learning at a university

The article presents an assessment of the quality of online distance learning in a modern university, based on the scientific works of Russian and Hungarian authors; an overview of the methodological aspects of online teaching is given on the examples of six disciplines in three Russian and one Hungarian universities. The generally positive experience of using digital resources MS-Teams, Mirapolis, Zoom, etc. in teaching is complicated by the presence of some technical shortcomings. Because of this, when conducting online lectures, there is an unstable attention of students, and there are problems of objectivity of testing, while when conducting practical classes in a foreign language, it is difficult for a teacher to conduct an objective assessment of students' oral speech. The authors carried out a methodological adjustment of certain aspects of online distance learning in order to improve its quality. Identified and tested in pilot experiments are such methodological tools to enhance the attention of students and improve the effectiveness of lecture courses, such as elements of general interactivity, as well as interactivity using the algorithms of Kahoot and Mentimeter electronic systems. The use of these electronic systems makes it possible to more effectively use the significant potential that mobile phones, tablets, or personal computers of students represent to improve the quality of online learning. It is noted that interactive inclusions in the lecture contribute to the strengthening of students' voluntary attention. The methodological methods introduced by the lecturers for the individualization of teaching tasks in the discipline of pedagogy of higher education and double mini-testing in higher mathematics at PGUPS contributed to a better assimilation of lecture material by students. For practical classes in the discipline "foreign language in professional activity" at the Bonch-Bruevich University, a three-stage technology for independent work of students was developed using video auditing and mental mapping to prepare for communication during the classroom.

Динамика психосоциальных, психопатологических и нейропсихологических характеристик участников ликвидации последствий Чернобыльской аварии: итоги 30-летнего исследования

Study Objective: To assess the possibilities of social adaptation in persistent psychopathological, including cognitive impairments. Study Design: Longitudinal study. Materials and Methods. A 30-year observation, treatment and rehabilitation of clean-up workers of accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, who underwent an in-wide clinical, psychopathological and neuropsychological examination at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, was carried out. 373 people were selected for the study. A dynamic psychopathological and neuropsychological assessment of their condition is given, as well as a description of their social status and adaptive capabilities. In the neuropsychological section of the study, the results of systematic cognitive training were evaluated. The neuropsychological test battery included methods for assessing memory, attention, and thinking. Study Results. The subjects had modally non-specific memory impairments, in particular due to insufficient fixation of mnestic traces, limited ability to analyze and rethink information in the process of memorization, a decrease in the overall level of activity, exhaustion of voluntary attention, general mental fatigue and stress in the process of mental activity, learning difficulties new skills. However, the quantitative characteristics of cognitive functions did not change from hospitalization to hospitalization, which means that there was no progressive cognitive decline in the cohort. Psychocorrectional measures consisted in conducting cognitive training that stimulates the development of cognitions and the disclosure of unused cognitive resources. The level of somatic and mental well-being of Chernobyl disaster consequences participants correlates with that of patients with organic, cerebrovascular diseases and differs statistically significantly from the indicators of healthy individuals, the same relationships were noted when assessing microsocial support and the level and nature of self-perception. The results of the assessment of social functioning showed a fairly stable social adaptation of former clean-up workers and positive personality attitudes. Conclusion. Systematic medical and rehabilitation care, the formation of therapeutic partnerships based on the preserved personal qualities of patients made it possible to significantly compensate for psychopathological disorders, slow down cognitive decline and ensure fairly stable social adaptation. Keywords: participants of the elimination of Chernobyl disaster consequences, longitudinal study, long-term medical and rehabilitation assistance, the possibility of correcting mental disorders, social adaptation.

Изменение ЭЭГ-ритмов и вариабельности ритма сердца в ответ на холод в зависимости от параметров произвольного внимания у молодых людей

The aim of the work was to determine the relationship of individual typological reactions of bioelectric activity of the brain, variability of the cardiac heart (HRV) when exposed to cold with the parameters of voluntary attention. EEG, HRV and body temperature were recorded in the heat, with short-term air cooling (-200C, 10 minutes) and after being in the cold. The evaluation of indicators of voluntary attention was performed using the Toulouse-Pieron test and included parameters such as speed, accuracy of the test and the number of errors. The results of the study revealed three variants of the formation of adaptive reactions in response to cold. The obtained results suggest that the best indicators of voluntary attention and the effectiveness of adaptive response to cold were observed with optimal interaction of the central and autonomic nervous systems. The correlation between the low speed of the test and the high accuracy and the tension of the regulatory systems of the body in response to cold with the predominance of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the high activity of the hypothalamic-diencephalic structures of the brain was found. The average speed of completing test tasks with a large number of errors reveals a relationship with insufficient resource mobilization in adapting to cold with a predominance of activity of the parasympathetic nervous system and an increase in the activity of subcortical structures of the brain. Thus, in the conditions of the North, individual variants of adaptive reactions in response to cold have been identified, associated with various neurophysiological mechanisms of mobilization of functional systems and indicators of the level of voluntary attention.

Гипотетический нейронный механизм слепоты невнимания

One of the approaches to neuroscientific investigation of consciousness is the study of inattentional blindness. Since this effect is the result of the absence of voluntary attention, it is highly interesting to study the latter. We proposed that the involvement of voluntary attention into the processing of sensory information requires the activation of prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, as well as a release of dopamine in the input structure of the basal ganglia, the striatum. This promotes disinhibition of neurons in the thalamus, subthalamic and pedunculopontine nuclei experiencing inhibitory influence of the basal ganglia. If neurons of the ventral striatum (where, the inputs converge from the hippocampus and the prefrontal and retrosplenial cortical areas) are activated strongly enough, the dopamine-dependent activity reorganization in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops facilitates the generation of neuronal representations of sensory stimuli in the corresponding neocortical areas. In addition, it creates the conditions for the circulation of excitation in the topographically organized thalamo-cortical loops, the loops connecting primary and higher cortical areas through high order thalamic nuclei, and loops connecting the neocortex and thalamus with the hippocampus, cerebellum, subthalamic and pedunculopontine nuclei. It is generally accepted that conscious perception is facilitated by re-excitation of higher cortical areas. If so, the time required for the conscious perception of a sensory stimulus should depend on the time of activity circulates in the loops mentioned earlier. It follows from the proposed mechanism that dopamine deficiency increases inhibition of the thalamus and decreases its excitation by the neocortex, cerebellum, subthalamic and pedunculopontine nuclei. This should lead to an increase in the interval between the two stimuli required to become aware of the second one. This consequence is in line with the well-known results of studies of inattentional blindness. They showed a similar increase in this interval in Parkinson’s disease and due to the damage of the cerebellum or pedunculopontine nucleus.

Phonetic versus spatial processes during motor-oriented imitations of visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

While a large amount of research has studied the facilitation of visual speech on auditory speech recognition, few have investigated the processing of visual speech gestures in motor-oriented tasks that focus on the spatial and motor features of the articulator actions instead of the phonetic features of auditory and visual speech. The current study examined the engagement of spatial and phonetic processing of visual speech in a motor-oriented speech imitation task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the haemodynamic activities related to spatial processing and audiovisual integration in the superior parietal lobe (SPL) and the posterior superior/middle temporal gyrus (pSTG/pMTG) respectively. In addition, visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech were compared with examine the influence of visual familiarity and audiovisual association on the processes in question. fNIRS revealed significant activations in the SPL but found no supra-additive audiovisual activations in the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that the processing of audiovisual speech stimuli was primarily focused on spatial processes related to action comprehension and preparation, whereas phonetic processes related to audiovisual integration was minimal. Comparisons between visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech imitations revealed no significant difference in the activation of the SPL or the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that a higher degree of visual familiarity and audiovisual association did not significantly influence how visuo-labial speech was processed compared with visuo-lingual speech. The current study offered insights on the pattern of visual-speech processing under a motor-oriented task objective and provided further evidence for the modulation of multimodal speech integration by voluntary selective attention and task objective.

Citicoline in the Treatment of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Blood Relatives of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Course Therapy

The aim was to study immediate and long-term (post-therapeutic) effects of a three-month course of therapy with citicoline in 1st-degree relatives of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). All the included relatives of patients with AD revealed signs of minimal cognitive dysfunction (MCD) and mild cognitive decline syndrome (MCI — Mild Cognitive Impairment, ICD-10 code F06.7). Study participants: the study involved 90 first-degree relatives: 24 with MCI and 66 with MCD. Study design: an open-label comparative multidisciplinary study of the six-month dynamics of cognitive functioning of two groups of relatives who received a three-month course of citicoline therapy. The baseline indicators of the cognitive functioning of relatives with MCI syndrome and MKD were compared with the indicators at the end of the three-month course of therapy with citicoline at a daily dose of 1000 mg as well as 3 months after the end of the course of treatment. Methods: clinical, psychopathological, neuropsychological, psychometric, genetic, statistical ones. Results: а significant positive effect of the course therapy with citicoline on the cognitive impairment of 1st degree AD-patients’ relatives with minimal cognitive dysfunction and more pronounced cognitive impairments met the diagnostic criteria for MCI syndrome has been found. A significantly greater value of both immediate and long-term therapeutic effect of MKD compared with MCI in relatives was established by psychometric and neuropsychological indicators characterizing voluntary memorization of verbal and visual stimuli, optical and spatial activity, voluntary attention, and associative verbal thinking. Conclusion: the results of the study can be used as the basis for a model of prevention of the progression of cognitive deficit and the development of dementia in persons with a high risk of developing AD, i.e. in individuals with both genetic risk and signs of cognitive impairment.

The Differential Impact of Mystery in Nature on Attention: An Oculometric Study.

Nature exposure can provide benefits on stress, health and cognitive performance. According to Attention Restoration Theory (ART), the positive impact of nature on cognition is mainly driven by fascination. Fascinating properties of nature such as water or a winding hiking trail may capture involuntary attention, allowing the directed form of attention to rest and to recover. This claim has been supported by studies relying on eye-tracking measures of attention deployment, comparing exposure to urban and nature settings. Yet, recent studies have shown that promoting higher engagement with a nature setting can improve restorative benefits, hence challenging ART’s view that voluntary attention is resting. Besides, recent evidence published by Szolosi et al. (2014) suggests that voluntary attention may be involved during exposure to high-mystery nature images which they showed as having greater potential for attention restoration. The current study explored how exposure to nature images of different scenic qualities in mystery (and restoration potential) could impact the engagement of attention. To do so, participants were shown nature images characterized by either low or high mystery properties (with allegedly low or high restoration potential, respectively) and were asked to evaluate their fascination and aesthetic levels. Concurrently, an eye tracker collected measures of pupil size, fixations and spontaneous blinks as indices of attentional engagement. Results showed that high-mystery nature images had higher engagement than low-mystery images as supported by the larger pupil dilations, the higher number of fixations and the reduced number of blinks and durations of fixations. Taken together, these results challenge ART’s view that directed attention is merely resting during exposure to restorative nature and offer new hypotheses on potential mechanisms underlying attention restoration.

RELAÇÃO ENTRE A ORGANIZAÇÃO DO ENSINO E O DESENVOLVIMENTO DA ATENÇÃO VOLUNTÁRIA NA PRODUÇÃO ACADÊMICA

Historical and Cultural Theory states that the higher psychic functions, which includes attention, are developed by the appropriation of culture and, consequently, school education has an important role in the process. The statement, however, is insufficient so that teachers develop children´s attention in classroom activities. We would like to ask: Are there productions within academic literature that may subsidize teachers´ work in the execution of a type of teaching that boosts the development of attention? Research has been undertaken in the Catalogue of Dissertations and Theses of the Coordination for the Upgrading of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTG), the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and CAPES´s portal of journals, to investigate the contents of publications on voluntary attention based on the presuppositions of the Historical and Cultural Theory. Current paper forwards an analysis of studies in school education specifically focused on voluntary attention. Results show that the number of researches that employ methodologies which analyze ways which are favorable for the development of voluntary attention within the school context is small. In the wake of the great need of pedagogical methods for lack of attention, investigations that produce knowledge on teaching organization with such capacity should be broadened and intensified.

Cognitive-behavioral aspects in the effectiveness of foreign language training of students of a non-linguistic university

The article analyzes the impact of the cognitive-behavioral characteristics of students from a non-linguistic university on the level of success in learning a foreign language. The purpose of this article is to identify the patterns of the cognitive-behavioral parameters of decision-making in the conditions of choosing between various alternative reactions and their relationship with the effectiveness of foreign language training of students from a non-linguistic university. To study behavior patterns, the method of parameterizing was used such as an important component of any activity, as decision-making by modeling situations under conditions of free, probabilistic and conditional choice. The study involved freshmen and sophomores from a medical university, who were studying foreign languages. The simulation of the follow-up of the stimulus presented revealed a low level of voluntary attention in the students with low performance, especially in a situation of imposed rhythm. Naturally, there is the hypothesis that in this group, their own cognitive style is dependent on environmental conditions, so this must be taken into account in the learning process. The results obtained indicate that the presence of universal differentiated cognitive-behavioral strategies are important in the case of successful / unsuccessful command of a foreign language.

Hypothesis on the informative principles of voluntary and involuntary attention: on the theory of non-systems and causal environments in causal dualism

The subject of this research is certain informative principles of functionality of human nervous system. In the limelight is the interdependence of consciousness and information, as well as the question in the spirit of anti-physicalist arguments: whether the conscious processes are informative, and thus physical, or require a categorical apparatus for description? The first part of the article discusses possible wording of some informative principles of functionality of nervous system that answer the question “why” rather than “how”. The second part is dedicated to the general classification of causal environments, as well as description of conscious processes within the framework of new possible terminology. A number of hypotheses is advanced on the informative mechanisms of involuntary and voluntary attention. With regards to involuntary attention, the author examines the mechanism for resource conservation, or filtering information, which suggests that the nervous system tends to consume resources for processing the rarer – and more information capacious messages. Such position complies with the law of conservation of energy. Voluntary attention is viewed on the basis of information interpretation of the Le Chatelier’s principle. Voluntary attention, resulting conscious actions, and responses of the nervous system (including creativity) are considered as informational messages aimed at alleviation of the impact of external environment, namely the level of information uncertainty. Such information approach prompts to view consciousness as a non-system or causal environment, within which causality is transmitted without transmitting information. The article provides the variant of classification of causal environments that may contribute to further development of non-informative (non-physicalist) approach towards the problem of consciousness.

Physiological and Hygienic Characteristics of Cognitive Functions Determining Successful Student Learning Under Conditions of Different Schooling Intensity

Introduction: In the context of the modern educational process, accompanied by a high intensity of intellectual work, one of the most important tasks of school medicine specialists is to support, maintain and improve cognitive skills of schoolchildren as the main predictors of academic success. Objective: The study aimed to give a physiological and hygienic characteristic of cognitive functions determining academic success of schoolchildren aged 15–17 years under conditions of various schooling intensity. Materials and methods: We conducted a time study to assess schooling intensity of 250 pupils of a multidisciplinary lyceum (Group 1) and 274 pupils of a comprehensive school (Group 2) and evaluated their academic performance. Computer testing was used to study the functional state of the central nervous system, mental performance and cognitive skills of the schoolchildren. Results: We established higher grade point averages in key disciplines among Group 1 students with high schooling intensity (class 3.1) compared to those in Group 2 with optimal intensity of the educational process (class 1). We found that high academic performance in Group 1 was attributed to the optimal functional state of the central nervous system characterized by stabilization of nervous processes and a better ability of the nervous system to form the adaptive functional system of the body in response to various stimuli; to the dominance of the left cerebral hemisphere in 61.2 % of the students, which determined mature skills of verbal, abstract, logical and analytical thinking in 51.9–93.5% of the students; high speed of mental activity and concentration of voluntary attention promoting cognitive activity and maintaining normal mental performance of the schoolchildren. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the processes of adaptation of schoolchildren to various factors of school environment and learning to be used within the development of school medicine when organizing educational activities of students at schools with an intensive learning regime in order to promote academic performance and achieve high efficiency of the educational process within physiological capabilities of children and adolescents. At the same time, from physiological and hygienic points of view, assessment of cognitive skills in children and teenagers by means of medical and psychological testing in educational establishments implementing profile training of various difficulty levels can become an effective diagnostic tool in predicting academic performance of students and help resolve issues of prevention of maladjustment and stress at school.

Dynamic Interplay between Reward and Voluntary Attention Determines Stimulus Processing in Visual Cortex.

Reward enhances stimulus processing in the visual cortex, but the mechanisms through which this effect occurs remain unclear. Reward prospect can both increase the deployment of voluntary attention and increase the salience of previously neutral stimuli. In this study, we orthogonally manipulated reward and voluntary attention while human participants performed a global motion detection task. We recorded steady-state visual evoked potentials to simultaneously measure the processing of attended and unattended stimuli linked to different reward probabilities, as they compete for attentional resources. The processing of the high rewarded feature was enhanced independently of voluntary attention, but this gain diminished once rewards were no longer available. Neither the voluntary attention nor the salience account alone can fully explain these results. Instead, we propose how these two accounts can be integrated to allow for the flexible balance between reward-driven increase in salience and voluntary attention.

About time: modelling dynamic voluntary attention.

Goal-directed behaviour requires flexible prioritisation of relevant sensations in space and time. A recent paper by Denison et al. brings time into a canonical model of voluntary selective attention. We reflect on this breakthrough and consider the opportunities it offers for future research on the dynamic fabric of mind.

Fluid Attention in Education: Conceptual and Neurobiological Framework.

Attention is indispensable to our learning, performance, relationships, health, and daily life, and yet laboratory studies of attention have only scratched the surface of these lived varieties of attention. In this article, we begin with William James' theory of derived involuntary attention, which has largely been ignored in laboratory research. We then show that there is a gap in our attention vocabulary and the theory that underpins it, which depend on an incomplete voluntary/involuntary dichotomy. The negative effects of this dichotomy stretch beyond laboratory research to clinical diagnosis, influencing how we understand so-called attention deficits. To fill the gap between voluntary and involuntary, we introduce a third kind of attention—fluid attention (also called postvoluntary attention), which is goal-directed and selective, like voluntary attention, but also effortless and drawn to its source, like involuntary attention. Fluid attention is a rediscovery of James' derived involuntary attention. A distinguishing feature of fluid attention is its motivational component, which, we show, neurophysiologically also reveals a gap in the neurocognitive literature on attention. Recognizing fluid attention as fundamentally motivational allows ADHD to be redefined as a motivational rather than an attentional deficit, which we go on to show has significant implications for both special and regular education.

Attention to voices is increased in non-clinical auditory verbal hallucinations irrespective of salience

Alterations in the processing of vocal emotions have been associated with both clinical and non-clinical auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), suggesting that changes in the mechanisms underpinning voice perception contribute to AVH. These alterations seem to be more pronounced in psychotic patients with AVH when attention demands increase. However, it remains to be clarified how attention modulates the processing of vocal emotions in individuals without clinical diagnoses who report hearing voices but no related distress. Using an active auditory oddball task, the current study clarified how emotion and attention interact during voice processing as a function of AVH proneness, and examined the contributions of stimulus valence and intensity. Participants with vs. without non-clinical AVH were presented with target vocalizations differing in valence (neutral; positive; negative) and intensity (55 decibels (dB); 75 dB). The P3b amplitude was larger in response to louder (vs. softer) vocal targets irrespective of valence, and in response to negative (vs. neutral) vocal targets irrespective of intensity. Of note, the P3b amplitude was globally increased in response to vocal targets in participants reporting AVH, and failed to be modulated by valence and intensity in these participants. These findings suggest enhanced voluntary attention to changes in vocal expressions but reduced discrimination of salient and non-salient cues. A decreased sensitivity to salience cues of vocalizations could contribute to increased cognitive control demands, setting the stage for an AVH.

Psychological Readiness of Elite and Well-Trained Billiard Players for the Main Competitions of the Macrocycle

Planning of integral preparation for athletes of national billiard teams should be carried out comprehensively, taking into account the level of psychological preparedness of players for the main competitions of the mac- rocycle. The aim of the study is to determine the model indicators of elite billiards players` psychological readi- ness for the main competitions of the macrocycle. Research methods: to analyse and generalize special scientific and methodological literature, surveys, psychological, pedagogical, methods of mathematical statistics. Results: our study allows us to determine the model characteristics of the athletes` psychological preparedness during competitive stress and to assess the billiard players` mental state before and after undergoing a course of auto- genic training. The psychological parameters` dynamic of the billiard players` functional state such as "mental activation", "interest", "emotional tone", "tension" and "comfort", which significantly correlates with the special preparedness of athletes for the main competitions of the macrocycle. Scientifically substantiated indicators of balance function with and without visual control, productivity, stress resistance, volume of voluntary attention, efficiency of attention, and coefficient of motivational, volitional and typological component of elite athletes who show high sports results at main competitions of macrocycle. The obtained data allows to improve the psycho- logical control system of athletes while taking into account their individual characteristics.