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This is the first study to reveal our brains rely on an active suppression mechanism to avoid being distracted by salient irrelevant information when we want to focus on a particular item or task

other scientists first discovered the existence of the specific neural index of suppression in his lab in 2009

r results show clearly that this is only one part of the equation and that active suppression of the irrelevant objects is another important part

psychologists say their discovery could help scientists and health care professionals better treat individuals with distraction-related attentional deficits

Distraction is a leading cause of injury and death in driving and other high-stakes environments

disorders associated with attention deficits, such as ADHD and schizophrenia, may turn out to be due to difficulties in suppressing irrelevant objects rather than difficulty selecting relevant ones

researchers are now turning their attention to understanding how we deal with distraction

looking at when and why we can't suppress potentially distracting objects, whether some of us are better at doing so and why that is the case.

could be of great benefit for people deprived of limb movements, such as those with Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS), the researchers say. It might also help to improve eye movement control in people with certain conditions such as dyslexia or ADHD and/or for experts, such as athletes or surgeons, whose activities strongly rely on eye movements

In everyday life, smooth pursuit eye movement is used to track moving targets

fact our eyes never cease to move

normally impossible to control those movements smoothly in any direction.

got a hint that smooth eye movements just might be possible in a completely accidental way

technology relies on changes in contrast to trick the eyes into the perception of motion

now working on a better version of his eye writer, and tests with ALS patients should start next year

He was moving his own eyes in front of an unusual visual display in his lab and discovered that it produced some odd effects. For one thing, he could see his own eye movements. With a little practice, he gradually discovered that he could control those eye movements, too.