What’s Sustained Attention?

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Sustained attention is a direct focus on a stimulus for the duration of a cognitive task. Distractions can interrupt a person’s attention and make it difficult to complete a task in a timely or effective manner. These can include environmental and cognitive disturbances; some learning disabilities, for example, interfere with attention. Patients with conditions such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) have difficulty with sustained attention tasks.

There are three general stages to sustained attention. The first involves attention grabbing to direct a person’s attention to a particular stimulus. Someone browsing through the newspaper in the morning, for example, might notice an article that seems interesting. This initiates the task of reading the article, which requires keeping one’s attention on the text as the person reads it. Finally, release allows someone to switch to another activity.

Some activities lend themselves well to dividing or interrupting attention, allowing people to work on multiple things at once. Someone can watch television and knit, for example. Others require sustained attention; it’s more difficult to read while watching children or drive a car while shaving. People who have difficulty with such tasks may have trouble with the initiation process or with holding their attention long enough to finish.

Sustained attention studies evaluate the parts of the brain involved and the differences between the developing and adult brains, as well as the brains of people with various cognitive disabilities. This research may help scientists understand how attention works and how people can deal with deficits that make it difficult for them to focus on stimuli. People may also have trouble releasing or stopping attention when they’re done, a phenomenon seen in some patients with autism spectrum disorders and similar conditions. These patients become hyperfocused on a task or topic and may become distressed if someone attempts to interrupt or redirect their attention.

Individuals with learning disabilities may benefit from accommodations such as quiet rooms in which to work so they are less easily distracted. Some find it helpful to take medications, which can increase their ability to focus on specific, discrete tasks. Others participate in exercises to develop and sharpen their attention skills; these may include meditation or learning exercises that require sustained attention to respond to prompts. People interested in developing coping skills and contributing to research can see if there are clinical trials in their area to give them an opportunity to access treatment while helping other people with attention issues.

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