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Updated: Jul 4, 2026
09:37
Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015
The central attentional limitation and executive control
1Humboldt-University Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany. torsten.schubert@psychologie.hu-berlin.de
Summary
Dual-tasking incurs processing costs due to central attentional limitations, causing bottleneck interference. This interference arises from control processes, not passive resource occupation, and involves the lateral prefrontal cortex.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Dual-tasking often leads to processing costs.
- Central attentional limitations are hypothesized to cause these costs.
- Bottleneck interference describes serial processing when tasks compete for limited resources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize recent findings on the psychological and neural mechanisms of bottleneck interference.
- To explore the location, content-dependency, and practice effects of bottleneck interference.
- To investigate the role of control processes in serial task ordering.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent psychological and neuroimaging research.
- Analysis of findings on bottleneck interference location and characteristics.
- Examination of evidence for active control processes in bottleneck interference.
Main Results:
- Bottleneck interference is influenced by processing content and practice.
- The bottleneck is not a passive resource occupation but actively regulated.
- Control processes, linked to lateral prefrontal cortex activation, manage serial access.
Conclusions:
- Bottleneck interference in dual-tasking is actively regulated by control processes.
- These control processes involve specific neural substrates in the lateral prefrontal cortex.
- Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for explaining dual-task performance limitations.
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