There are two kinds of attention we were interested in studying -- voluntary attention and involuntary attention, study leader Dr. Paul J. Laurienti, of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C., said in a statement.

We all know that we can choose to focus on one sense and ignore another, he said. For instance, you might be able to ignore the sounds of the television while you read the paper. But sometimes a very salient stimulus can capture your attention anyway -- for instance, if the fire alarm went off while you were reading the paper.

Voluntary attention and involuntary attention were measured in 48 participants, half between the ages of 18 and 38 and half between 65 and 90 -- preforming the same tasks.

Older adults were also quite similar to younger adults in how much of their attention was captured involuntarily, said doctoral candidate Christina Hugenschmidt. Even as we age, this study suggests that the brain's ability to engage multi-sensory attention remains intact.

The study was presented by Hugenschmidt of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.

Source: United Press International. Powered by YellowBrix.

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