Are you Constantly Distracted?

Michael Halassa, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, is the senior author of a study along with other MIT neuroscientists that has identified a brain circuit that helps us suppress a distracting signal so that you can focus on what you want. The circuit they identified, which is controlled by the prefrontal cortex, filters out unwanted background noise or other distracting sensory stimuli. When this circuit is engaged, the prefrontal cortex selectively suppresses sensory input as it flows into the thalamus, the site where most sensory information enters the brain.

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