
Controlling attention with brain waves - hhs
http://news.mit.edu/2019/controlling-attention-brain-waves-1204
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jameslk
I'd like to know how this compares to neurofeedback therapy:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback)

Neurofeedback has been around for a long time and there seems to be
conflicting results on its effects on attention. Is the study on a different
type of neurofeedback therapy or is it supporting the effectiveness of current
neurofeedback therapy?

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bluechair
I wanted to complain that there was no link to the paper but it's there on the
right side. Hope this helps someone else:
[https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(19)30964-X](https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273\(19\)30964-X)

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MrQuincle
Mmm. Without the distinction between top-down attention and bottom-up
saliency, this is impossible to interpret.

For example Itti, Koch, and Niebur have papers on a simple attention model:
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/730558](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/730558)

You can not just do an experiment using top-down attention on one hemisphere
and subsequently draw conclusions using a bottom-up salient object at the
other hemisphere. At least not conclusions about the role of alpha waves in
both - different (!) - scenarios.

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navidr
Does attention has any correlation to IQ? I mean is it possible to have an IQ
of 180, but perform with IQ 120 because of lack of attention?

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tomjakubowski
Anecdata, sample size 1: When I was a teenager struggling in school because of
attention issues, a psychiatrist had me take a test which suggested so. IQ and
a few memory/recall-related tasks measured a bit higher when I was medicated
with Adderall than without it.

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raducu
That should be controlled against simply repeating the test and simply giving
"normal" people adderal during iq testing.

