The Science of Focus | Why you get distracted

Cursed distraction

After about an hour, focus begins to waver. Compulsive distraction seeps into the room: “I wonder what the weather is tomorrow… I shall eat sardines for dinner.” All of a sudden, you succumb to the cursed itch to check your phone. Frankly, you need to rearrange all the items on your desk. But why can you only focus for a limited time before getting distracted? Is there a way to optimize focus for learning?

The ultradian cycle

Daily, natural body cycles accommodate times of peak focus. The ultradian cycle, described by a peer-reviewed paper in the Journal Biology to function in “all biological systems and found in all organisms,” splits the 24-hour block into approximately 90-minute cycles. As a result, the brain and body do not function with the same intensity every minute or hour of the day. Instead, there are shorter cascades of activity, oscillating peaks and slumps.

Focus breathes the ultradian rhythm. According to Professor of Neuroscience Andrew Huberman when the focus bout begins, in the first 5-10 minutes, the brain tunes the neurochemicals to rise into deep focus. Thus, acute attention and alertness fuel the brain for about 60 minutes. In the last segment, which lasts around 10-20 minutes, focus tapers and distraction flickers.

But why do you lose focus even if you have enough energy to continue? And why does focus even follow this schedule?

Neuroscience

The system behind the scenes is the basal ganglia, a structure in the deep center brain that resides just below the cortex. Any action ever performed is filtered through the neural communication between the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex, the thinking, decision-making, strategic, and conscious part of the brain. The basal ganglia directs action in two ways: go and no-go. When go is stimulated, the brain and body are cued for action, initiation, and engagement. Conversely, no-go facilitates inaction, prevention, and avoidance. 

Focus needs both. Here’s a scenario: you are writing an essay. Go– you log onto the computer, you think, you search up definitions, you brainstorm, you type. No-go– you don’t get snacks, you don’t daydream, you don’t play with the lamp, you don’t doodle. In order to engage in focused activities, there must be a suppression of the unfocused ones.

But how does the basal ganglia decide what actions to take? And what is distraction?

Go and no-go are inextricably tied to their corresponding receptors. At any moment in time, dopamine, a molecule involved in motivation, is moving in the bloodstream. Whether go or no-go is stimulated depends on which receptor dopamine binds to. Neuroscientist Michael Frank from the Cerebrum Dana Foundation conveys that when dopamine attaches to the D1 receptor, go is stimulated. Connecting with the D2 receptor stimulates no-go.

“These Go and NoGo pathways compete with each other when the brain selects among multiple possible actions, so that an… action can be facilitated while at the same time competing actions are suppressed,” explains Frank.

During deep focus, the basal ganglia can easily stimulate action and suppress distracting actions. Huberman deduces that the reason why focus fades is that this activation of the basal ganglia is metabolically consuming– depleting the neurons of energy. Consequently, as the ultradian cycle completes, the go and no-go pathways falter. Not having enough energy to pursue action (go) and suppress action (no-go) makes you more reflexive to do actions that are unrelated to the learning. Hence, distraction.

Optimize focus

• Keep your sessions around 90 minutes. Remember that the basal ganglia uses a lot of energy. If you want to do more sessions back-to-back, remember to rest the brain in between. 
• Eliminate distraction. If there is less distraction present, the brain will have fewer items to shut out. Every time you suppress action, you use energy. You will be less tempted. This includes removing miscellaneous items, snacks, and drinks from your desk.