A working neuroscience lab at the Science Gallery in Dublin is inviting volunteers to take part in experiments on attention, writes Claire O'Connell
I'M FEELING a little self-conscious. I'm sitting in a booth at the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin, in full view of the public, while two scientists fit me with a not-altogether-glamorous cap studded with electrodes.
Why am I here again? Oh yes, to donate my brain to science. Or at least offer up the next 20 minutes of its activity anyway.
I'm at a new exhibition that has moved a working neuroscience research lab into the gallery and invites the public to take part in a range of ongoing experiments on attention, which it bills as the "royal road to consciousness".
Our brains can filter out background noise as we focus on a task such as reading or conversing. Meanwhile, lapses in attention can bring results as irritating as forgetting why we walked into a room or as dire as fatal accidents.
Attention is one of the most important functions of the human brain, according to Trinity professor of psychology, Ian Robertson who, along with Prof Richard Reilly, moved their research teams into the gallery for a month.
"Attention affects everything ranging from road accidents to people's ability to study to disorders like schizophrenia to dementia to attention deficit disorder," he says.
In the gallery lab I'm being rigged up for an experiment to test my "chronotype" - whether I'm more alert in the morning or evening - and how my sustained attention fares while I carry out a repetitive task on the computer.
Robertson hazards a guess that I'm a morning person. My husband and children might vehemently disagree, but it turns out they are all somewhat right: the questionnaire pegs my chronotype as "neutral".
But why care whether I'm a lark or an owl? It's to see whether a person's chronotype might influence the results of experiments on attention, explains PhD researcher Sabina Brennan, who studies cognitive ageing and early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
"We know that older people reach their peak earlier in the day than younger people, but cognitive ageing research that compares old and young people often tests everybody at the same time of day, so they may well be attentuating or exaggerating the differences," says Brennan as she sets up electrodes on the cap. "So I'm looking at relationships between arousal levels and whether you are at your preferred or non-preferred time."
She uses an electroencephalograph (EEG) to track electrical signals from the outer layer of my brain as I click through a suitably mind-numbing computerised task.
"It is designed to tap into the area of vigilant attention, when you are doing those very automated tasks that you forget what you were supposed to be doing - it's where you put orange juice on your cereal instead of milk, or where train drivers go through the red light by mistake, your mind wanders," says Brennan.
Given that I'm a neutral chronotype and I keep alert throughout the session, I'm probably the experiment's equivalent of the dog that didn't bark, but nonetheless my results go into the data pool and the cap moves on to the next volunteer.
Other experiments at the gallery use EEG to figure out how the brain can focus on one conversation and block out others - the "cocktail party effect", explains post-doctoral researcher Dr Ed Lalor.
We know very little about how the brain filters information, so he is measuring brain activity while a volunteer hears two stories simultaneously but is told to listen to only one.
"So far people have found the first minute they do is quite difficult, the second minute is easier and the third is easier again. So they are starting to get used to the voices that are reading the stories and getting into the stories," says Lalor, emphasising the importance of using natural stimuli like speech in his experiments.
"Flashes and beeps are not very salient, but if you can get people into a story where they want to find out what happens next then we start taxing the attention system in a real-world way."
And for those who don't want to don the cap, there are plenty of shorter research experiments like judging the mood of virtual humans or using biofeedback to improve alertness and memory.
Or try Mindball, an intriguing game where you use your brainwaves to physically move a ball towards your opponent. The trick is to relax, so your alpha-waves push the ball away.
I'm immediately obliterated by one of the Trinity researchers, but The Irish Times photographer keeps the side up with an impressive ability to keep his brain cool under pressure.
The neuroscience "Lab in the Gallery", which is partnered by the Higher Education Authority, runs throughout October and the Science Gallery's director, Dr Michael John Gorman, encourages people to take part.
"You will get a taste of neuroscience research if you come along," he says. "This is an opportunity for people to get a sense of what research is in a very immediate sense, and we will hopefully be rolling it out with other kinds of labs in the future too."
• Pay Attention runs from noon until 8pm from Tuesdays to Fridays and from noon until 6pm at weekends until October 31st at the Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Closed on Mondays. Admission is free and pre-booking of experiment slots is recommended. To take part in a core experiment, you must be over 18
• See www.sciencegallery.com for details of experiments, talks and how to sign up
Want to improve your attention levels? Then behave yourself most of the time, according to an expert.
Behave yourself most of the time
Lifestyle can have a substantial impact on your ability to sustain attention through mundane, automated tasks, says Dr Paul Dockree, who lectures in psychology at Trinity College Dublin.
Factors such as stress, alcohol, caffeine, sleep patterns and age can have an impact on your everyday ability to pay attention, says Dockree, who is testing volunteers at Trinity College's Science Gallery this month.
A commonsense daily routine that includes regular sleep times, exercise and a healthy diet can help keep your attention in the noise of everyday life, he explains: "Just trying to behave yourself 80 per cent of the time to allow yourself 20 per cent misbehaviour is probably a good rule of thumb in terms of keeping things steady."