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Your brain scans your surroundings about four times per second, even while you focus on something else like reading a book.
Your brain scans your surroundings about four times per second, even while you focus on something else like reading a book.
This is a departure from the way we typically think our brains hold attention-neuroscientists have suggested that neurons fire in a consistent stream when you're focusing on one thing (like reading this Gizmodo blog, for instance). The new research suggests it instead has a kind of rhythm, where neurons become less active four times per second. During those little blips, the researchers suggest your brain visually checks your surroundings for something more important to pay attention to-like maybe something exceptionally threatening (a clumsy coworker about to douse you in hot coffee) or interesting (a dog in the office).
"Your brain's checking in on the rest of environment to see if it should focus on something else," Ian Fiebelkorn, a study author and cognitive neuroscientist at Princeton University, told Gizmodo. "Not that it unfocuses, but to see if something else beats out your current focus."
Comment: Along with the rapid advance of technology are discoveries of our biology, and stories like these serve as a fascinating reminder of how much more we still have to learn: