To Train or to Entertain the Brain: How Does Enhanced Focus of Attention Guide Perception into the Goal Directed Action

Abstract

Different areas of cognitive science traditionally perceived the mind as an abstract information processing entity, whose interactions with the outside world should be of small or no relevance at all. However, a recent embodied cognition perspective, view cognitive processes as deeply embedded into the body's interactions with the world. In support of such contention, lots of empirical evidence has been brought and thusly different claims proposed. In this paper, we present the computer based neurocognitive task of sustained attention which is a dual task with many characteristics that obviously mirror some of the above claims. In this regard, we take into consideration both on-line and off-line aspects of the embodied cognition and point out how processing efficiency and attentional functioning are crucial vehicles in bringing perception into effective action (embodied cognition). Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence about the bidirectional relationship between the attentional/cognitive functioning and emotion regulation as well. This rises new possibilities in looking at the cognitive bias modification approaches and brain-cognitive training procedures for human beings without perceiving them as disembodied minds or complex machines but instead proactive and physically involved in the real world. We argue that such cognitive training approaches even though at first glance seemed as mere technical and machine oriented procedures, should be regarded as humanistic in its nature which perfectly mirror the Merleau-Ponty's concept of "embodied subjectivity." Finally, we explain how such approaches can be successfully combined with the neurobiological accounts and effectively implemented into clinical practice (self-regulation, self-directed neuroplasticity, effortful control, behavior change).