Brain Researcher Develops New Attention Metric Linked to Mental Health
Translated & summarized from Globes by baba
Professor Nava Levit-Binnun is developing a new metric to measure attention, linking it directly to mental health and the ability to cope with anxiety and depression. Her research, funded by a significant grant, uses EEG to quantify attention flexibility, showing it's inversely correlated with mental health issues. She advocates for mindfulness practices to train attention, suggesting these skills are vital for both personal well-being and societal problem-solving in an increasingly distracting world.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Professor Nava Levit-Binnun is developing a new attention metric linked to mental health.
- Her research uses EEG to measure attention flexibility, finding it correlates with mental well-being.
- Mindfulness and meditation are key to improving attention and managing anxiety and depression.
- Levit-Binnun received a 1.25 million shekel grant for her attention research.
- She suggests attention control is crucial for personal resilience and societal improvement.
- Her work views attention as a trainable skill vital for navigating modern distractions.
Professor Nava Levit-Binnun, a researcher of meditation and the brain, is developing a new metric to measure attention, asserting that the battle for our focus is fundamentally a battle for our mental health. In an era of constant digital distractions, Levit-Binnun, who heads the Sam Spiegel Center for Brain and Consciousness at Reichman University, argues that our ability to direct our attention is crucial for managing anxiety, burnout, and crises. She explains that what enters our attentional spotlight becomes our reality, and the inability to shift focus can be linked to conditions like depression, obsession, and PTSD.
Levit-Binnun's research, supported by a 1.25 million shekel grant from the National Science Foundation, aims to quantify individual attention profiles by measuring brainwave synchronization using EEG. Her work, inspired by meditation and mindfulness practices, views attention as a beam of light that can become 'sticky,' making it difficult to disengage from a stimulus. Her lab has shown that this attention flexibility is inversely correlated with depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation.
She proposes that mindfulness and meditation are key to improving attention and mental well-being, countering the common misconception that meditation is solely about emptying the mind. Instead, she emphasizes practices that train the brain to intentionally focus, release, and shift attention flexibly, a concept akin to 'wise attention' in Buddhist tradition. This skill, she believes, is essential for navigating modern life's challenges, including political uncertainty and societal issues.
Levit-Binnun suggests practical strategies for regaining control of attention, such as assigning a task like counting red objects or focusing on a distant natural scene when drawn to screens. She also advocates for visualizing a wise role model to gain perspective on problems. She draws parallels to ancient Buddhist teachings, noting that internal mental stimuli have always posed attentional challenges, but modern technology exacerbates this by constantly vying for our focus.
Her research with Professor Gal Sheps at Tel Aviv University has indicated that mindfulness practitioners exhibit a broader range of coping strategies, choosing to engage with or distance from stimuli based on their physiological responses. Levit-Binnun envisions mindfulness not just as a personal stress-reduction tool but as a means for societal improvement, fostering empathy and collective action. She controversially suggests that systemic attention deficits, including within security apparatuses, may have contributed to events like October 7th, advocating for a renewed ownership of our attention to build a more compassionate and effective society.