How does the brain control impulsive behavior?
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—With a thousand distractions vying for your attention, how do you stay focused? Just who, or rather what, is in charge of your brain? New research into how the brain manages information has found that an area previously thought to be just an information collector in fact plays the role of an executive—helping to filter out extraneous information to help you stay focused. The findings offer potential insights into helping people with attention disorders. The research will be published in the July issue of Nature Neuroscience. An advance edition of the paper is available now on the journal’s Web site, www.nature.com/neuro. The brain area in question is the supplementary eye field, located in the frontal lobe. Vanderbilt neuroscientist Jeffrey Schall and his colleagues Veit Stuphorn and Tracy Taylor discovered in 2000 that the supplementary eye field registers conflict, rewards and mistakes, earning it the nickname the “oops center.” In their new research, Schall and Stup
