Selective attention
Distractor suppression
Also searched as Distractor suppression.
In depth
A subdomain of complex attention: locking onto what matters while ignoring what does not. The primate locus-coeruleus work describes it as selectively facilitating relevant sensory inputs.
What drives it
Alertness chemical increases it.
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116560 — LC-NE might improve perceptual performance by selectively facilitating relevant sensory inputs, thereby contributing to selective attention. doi 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116560 · PMC7873441
Calm under stress reduces it.
This meta-analysis of 172 studies (N = 2,263 anxious, N = 1,768 nonanxious) examined the boundary conditions of threat-related attentional biases in anxiety. Overall, the results show that the bias is reliably demonstrated with different experimental paradigms and under a variety of experimental conditions, but that it is only an effect size of d = 0.45. Verbatim from the source for this edge — Psychological Bulletin 2007;133(1):1-24 (Bar-Haim, Lamy, Pergamin, Bak, PMC-indexed replication set cited in Clin Psychol Rev S088761852200048.
What it drives
It increases Sharpens attention.
The DSM-5 Neurocognitive Work Group agreed on six principal domains of cognitive function, each with subdomains. Complex attention comprises sustained, divided and selective attention and processing speed. Taxonomic edge, not a causal mechanism: this is a DSM-5 domain/subdomain relationship, not a pathway acting on another. Sachdev 2014, Nat Rev Neurol 10:634-642 — Classifying neurocognitive disorders: the DSM-5 approach. doi 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.181
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.