Episode 8
Attention and Brain Health
EP8 overview
INTRO：
In the last episode, we explored how observational drawing may change the way we see and notice the world. This time, we’re discussing whether observational drawing can also help us focus?
In this episode of Brain Matters, Dr. Masha Vodynayk talks about attention, brain health, and why learning new creative skills may matter beyond just producing our work.
Vivian: Like many teenagers today feel, as if they have like a shorter extension span or are constantly distracted, could observational drawing improve attentional focus? And like when you say that it does enhance cognitive abilities, is it also associated with artist like naturally are, because if you want to draw some things that it takes time, and you need to focus, so is it like those two things they naturally go together.
Masha: Yeah, I think that's a very interesting topic, so when it comes to cognitive benefits and visual art, there's a few different cognitives on me. Where we typically see different benefits, so it's kind of the visual specials are meme broadly and then within attention, so when we think about attention, there's different types of attention. There is sustained attention, which is the type of attention that you're talking about, where we can focus on something for a long time. There's also attentional switching, which is I'm kind of like multitasking, but even visually looking at different parts of a scene, so there's like the global aspect of a scene, and then there's like the local details so when it comes to observational drawing, and its potential benefits on attention, there have been financially that visual attention can be or it relates to drawing skills in all of these different aspects, so when it comes to intentional switching, there's a relationship to visual arts expertise and observation drawing, and then when it comes to sustained attention, there haven't really been as many studies maybe looking at like sustained attention tasks and their relationship to observation and drawing. In part because sustained attention tasks in the lab can take quite a long time, because often it'll be like a really boring task that people have to do for like even up to ten minutes and they look at something on the screen and then, like letters, kind of like flashing, and then you're it's like random letters, and then when the letters is an A, you have to like press a button and then, you can imagine maybe the A will show up like once a minute or like once every two minutes or something like that, so you really have to pay attention.
So these types of task is typically how we measure sustained attention in the lab and they usually are not used in these types of studies, but what I have found in my own work is that ask people are developing drawing skills, their ability to focus and to sustain their attention improves even in just a short amount of time of practicing these different techniques, so one of the techniques that I would like to highlight, and this connection to sustained attention is the blind console drying. This is a very popular drawing technique that involves looking at the object rather than looking at the paper when you're drawing. So you can imagine every object has a contour or like an edge. So you can take a photo of the object, and then the content will be like all of the lines that go around the object, so with the blind contour with your eyes, you're very slowly tracing the contour of the object and then your hand is thinking with the movement of your eye, and drawing that object on a piece of paper. So you can imagine this is something that really involves your sustained attention, because you have to learn to first slow down your eye and then you also have to learn to think your eye with your hand, and you have to kind of draw the objects in full using this type of approach. So this is kind of more of a short term sustained attention, but you can imagine how something like this would really tell somebody well engage somebody sustained attention, and this is something that I found in my own work. So through practicing, the blind contour even see like four times somebody's sustained attention can significantly improve because we find like the first time that they're doing the odd drawing of an object says of their hand, you can tell their eyes kind of like jumping around, they're moving really quickly, but then by the time they get to the fourth drawing of their hand, you can tell that they have really slowed down their eye and they're starting to get to more accurate lines. They're starting to maybe go in on the details of their hand or where the creases are. So this isn't like, maybe a specific measure of cognition, but we can see through observing how somebody is drawing that they're engaging their sustained attention more, so this is kind of in the shorter, more like sketching based observational drawing, but then if you think of even sitting down to do a longer drawing of a bigger scene, that's obviously something that's going to involve sustained attention on a longer time scale, I'm drawing something even safe for like twenty minutes and drawing the bigger scene and then getting down more into the details that's also going to engage somebody's sustained attention and focus. So yeah, I definitely would say that practicing observational drawing skills is going to sharpen somebody's attention, both attentional switching aspect and the sustained attention aspect.
Vivian: Okay, so your work also involves older adults. Do you think practicing observational drawing early on in life could benefit us at an early age? Kind of like drawing is part of living a healthy lifestyle or a protective lifestyle.
Masha: Yeah. So my work it does focus on mostly a cognitive decline and how different activities that we engage in can prevent cognitive decline, and here I think it's really important to note that cognitive decline prevention really is something that starts in even adolescents and especially young adulthood, and I'm definitely middle adulthood if somebody hasn't really done things to trying to promote their brain health in an early life, I'm definitely midlife as when we want to start as well, because by the time it gets to older adulthood, often it's a bit too late and especially when it comes to dementia there's research that shows that even fifty percent of dementia cases can be prevented through a set of different modifiable risk factors. So, cognitive engagement and education are pretty big modifiable risk factors that can be easily addressed in an early life, so with that engaging in art has really gained quite a bit of recognition because the arts are cognitively stimulating. The arts also have the social component if we're doing them in a group. The arts can also have a physical component. I'm especially like with dance, but even if you think about observational drawing can encourage us like to go outside if we're drawing. I'm outside it also engages our fine motor skill, so more of that physical component. They also regulate our physiology, so they can regulate our heart rate and our blood pressure. Our blood pressure is also a risk factor for cognitive decline as well, so the arts are really this powerful tool for preventing different cognitive disorders as we age. So with that, it's really important to kind of start this early on. So, I think if somebody in high school and going into college finds an art form that they really enjoy if they practice it throughout their lives. And also if they learn new things, this is going to be something that's going to help them as they age. And I actually, I haven't really seen much research on this, but it's something that I've just observed myself that often artists are very cognitively sharp as they get older, so a lot of artists will live into older age. Visual artists like with painters, I often find they live into their nineties and they often don't die from things like cognitive decline. And also dancers often live very well into older age, so I think there's also some interesting things there, but yeah, so finding an art form.
Another part of healthy aging is also learning new things so that cognitive challenge often. Well, when we're kids, you know, we're always learning new things, and then in college, we're still learning new things when we go into the workforce. We're not really learning new things as much and then especially in retirement a lot of people can kind of stop doing new things even though there are different activities for older adults in retirement, which they can do, but it's really important to do new things, and the art are really this very engaging multimodal activity that can have really positive benefits.
Vivian: When you say visual art form to do all visual art forms like painting, crafting, clodging at all counts?
Masha: Yeah, there's definitely evidence showing you that different kinds of activities can all have different benefits. So observational and drawing, I'm personally drawing to it, because well, it's just something I've always been interested in, and I think it has these like it especially when it comes to research, as I mentioned it has these like very easy ways to study it. But research also does show that engaging a variety of different visual arts activities can have positive benefits, so like in the work with older adults, there were some studies that were done where older adults that hadn't really done crafting activities or photography they were assigned to a photography class or a crafting class, and then what they found was that I kind of down the road they actually had lower rates of getting dementia than a group of older adults who resume their regular activities. So it's really engaging. Well, learning a new skill is going to engage cognition in different ways, and that has really positive benefits, but then like I said, also engaging in the arts can have these social benefits, so if you're, I'm like in a class or if you're doing it with your friends that's also going to have positive benefits. So, different art forms will have different positive benefits, but kind of altogether they're going to have positive effects on the brain.
Vivian: So if our audience wanted to have one take away from your research, what would you want it to be?
Masha: Yeah. I think probably the main take away will be that our brains are malleable and plastic across the whole lifespan, and that engaging in activities like the arts and learning new aerospace activities is going to have really positive benefits on our cognition both in the short term and also in the long term. So encouraging people to find activities that they enjoy and sticking with them and then seeing them as tools to promote our brain health that that's going to be really beneficial for them, kind of across their whole lifespan. So I would say that would be the main take away that I would like people to get for my work.
Vivian: Yeah, and like just out of curiosity has researching observational drawing changed the way you personally see the world, and notice ordinary objects and experiences?
Masha: Yeah, I would say definitely my research has helped and then also my practice, so I do practice as a visual artist as well. So both my research and my practice have really changed the way that I look at the world. And through my research I was able to kind of identify these different techniques that are particularly beneficial for improving people's drawing skills like the blind cons word that I mentioned earlier. So I have found that both combining my research and my artistic practice has really started to shape. How I look at things and one of the benefits, I would say is really I guess like finding beauty and everything. So, I'd just be walking down the street and then, I like look at something like this is like very nice. So I think it kind of goes back to that mindfulness that I was talking about with the study with the older adults. It really promotes this mindful way of interacting with the world and looking at things in a new way. So this is something that I find and a lot of other people find to be a big benefit of observational drawing, and I think researching it has really helped me gain a better understanding of what is happening in our brains, so I'm definitely both my research and my practice have helped me shape how I see the world.
OUTRO:
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that our brains can keep changing throughout our lives.
Whether it’s drawing, painting, photography, or another creative art form, learning something new can challenge our brains, and maybe even help us notice more in the world around us.
Thanks for listening and see you next time on Brain Matters.