A Simple Model of Attentional Blink
For cognitive scientists and neuroscientists, this model provides a unified framework connecting attentional blink, default mode network, and meditation, but it is a theoretical proposal without empirical validation.
The paper presents a dynamical systems model that explains the attentional blink effect as resulting from temporal response dynamics of a stochastic linear system with threshold, linking it to default mode network activity. The model accounts for key findings from AB, DMN, and meditation research, and offers testable predictions.
The attentional blink (AB) effect is the reduced ability of subjects to report a second target stimuli (T2) among a rapidly presented series of non-target stimuli, when it appears within a time window of about 200-500 ms after a first target (T1). We present a simple dynamical systems model explaining the AB as resulting from the temporal response dynamics of a stochastic, linear system with threshold, whose output represents the amount of attentional resources allocated to the incoming sensory stimuli. The model postulates that the available attention capacity is limited by activity of the default mode network (DMN), a correlated set of brain regions related to task irrelevant processing which is known to exhibit reduced activation following mental training such as mindfulness meditation. The model provides a parsimonious account relating key findings from the AB, DMN and meditation research literature, and suggests some new testable predictions.