Scientists have measured how mindfulness changes the rhythm of attention

Neuroscientists have obtained new data on how attention and consciousness are connected: attention is able to rhythmically "scan" visual information even when the cue remains out of awareness, but visual awareness noticeably restructures this process - makes it faster, more accurate and better coordinated at the level of brain networks. This was reported by a team led by Jiang Yi (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), with the work published in Nature Communications.

Why it matters

The classic comparison of attention to a "spotlight" has long needed clarification: modern research shows that this "spotlight" is not static. It oscillates and periodically selects information at a certain rhythm (studies on humans and primates often discuss a range of about 4-8 Hz). A key question that has remained open until recently is whether such rhythmic selective attention can operate without conscious perception, and if so, what exactly changes awareness.

How the experiment was set up

To separate "attention" from "awareness", the researchers made visual cues invisible using a chromatic flicker fusion technique: two gratings of opposite colours alternated rapidly at around 30 Hz, above the fusion threshold, causing the cue to become indistinguishable from the background. The scientists then compared how the brain responds to visible and invisible cues using high-precision timing of stimulus presentation, EEG and temporal response function analyses.

What they found

The main result: rhythmic sampling of attention was triggered even by invisible cues - that is, conscious perception is not an "on button" for this mechanism. But when the cue was consciously visible, the system worked markedly more efficiently:

• the suppression of distracting stimuli increased;

• the rhythm of "sampling" became faster (about ~8 Hz vs. ~4 Hz with invisible cues);

• increased neural coherence at higher frequencies between frontal and occipital-parietal regions, the key nodes of the attention network.

First author Yang Fan formulates the conclusion as follows: visual awareness is not a binary switch, but a regulator that "tunes" attention, making it more flexible, selective, and fast.

Why it's needed in practice

The authors believe the results help us look at cognitive disorders in a new way: if attention can work "in the background" but without awareness does so more slowly and coarsely, then problems with concentration and filtering out interference can be studied not only as an "attention deficit" but also as a disorder in the interaction between attention and awareness.