This TED Talk features neuroscientist

Mady Ordecani Siedlar, recorded live at TED 2017.

Paying close attention to something.

Not that easy is it.

It's because our attention is pulled in so many different directions at the time,

and it's in fact pretty impressive if you can stay focused.

Many people think that attention is all about what we are focusing on,

but it's also about what information our brain is trying to filter them out.

There are two ways you direct your attention.

First, there's overt attention.

In overattention, you move your eyes towards something in order to pay attention to it.

Then there's covert attention.

In covert attention, you pay attention to something, but without moving your eyes.

Think of driving for a second.

Your overattention, your direction of the eyes, are in front, but that's your

covert attention which is constantly scanning the surrounding area where you don't actually

look at them. I'm a computational neuroscientist and I I work on cognitive brain-machine interfaces,

or bringing together the brain and the computer.

I love brain patterns.

Brain patterns are important for us, because based on them, we can build models for the computers,

and based on these models, computers can recognize how well our brain function,

and if it doesn't function well, then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devices for therapies.

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