A question of control

Could our differences be explained by our ability to control our attention?

Attention control and specifically distractor suppression is a fundamental process that we call upon in a variety of scenarios. However, we are not all equally able to efficiently suppress irrelevant information. For example, following brain damage, patients may be unable to ignore distraction. Interestingly, differences in our ability to suppress distractors are not unique to cases of brain trauma. They are also visible as we age and in relation to expression of traits such as Autism or Psychosis. In this talk Prof. Mevorach will discuss individual differences in our capacity for attention control and how it is linked to other cognitive tasks—such as motor control, or social decision making. His findings support the notion that individual differences in distractor suppression may have an overarching effect on behaviour.