To understand how we process and prioritize information in the real world, a Bar-Ilan brain science researcher transformed a high-school classroom into a living laboratory, measuring students\u2019 brain activity while learning lessons about attention and the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"
![\"Prof.](\"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Dr.-Elana-Zion-Golumbic.jpg\")
Prof. Elana Zion-Golumbic[\/caption] The advantages of a laboratory for neuroscience research are undeniable, primary among them the power to control specific variables and study their effect on neural processes. Yet for brain scientist Prof. Elana Zion-Golumbic of\u00a0the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, who seeks to understand how our brains encode and filter information in noisy, multi-sensory environments, a lab was too clean and controlled for the study of how attention operates in real life. So, last year, she took her research to the place that poses perhaps the greatest challenge to attention\u2014obviously, a high-school classroom.<\/p>
\u201cThe average classroom isn\u2019t just tough for teachers,\u201d says Zion-Golumbic. \u201cFrom a noise perspective, it\u2019s also an incredibly difficult place for students to learn.\u201d Not surprisingly, her results showed that the presence in class of irrelevant sounds and speech in the background negatively affected fully one hundred percent of participants. For some students, however, the effect was more substantial than others. \u201cWe don\u2019t understand why not everyone is affected in the same way and what this impact looks like neurally,\u201d Zion-Golumbic says. If we did, she goes on to explain, we might learn what helps some people overcome noise distractions and how to create optimal conditions for attention and learning.<\/p>\n![\"Elana](\"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Elana-Research.jpg\" "\\"Elana")
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Above:<\/strong>\u00a0Students in the brain-science major at Begin High School conduct research in partnership with Prof. Elana Zion-Golumbic. Banner:<\/strong> Prof. Elana Zion-Golumbic's partners in research at Begin High School.<\/p>\n An early takeaway from the study\u2014set to be completed in another two years\u2014includes the impact of \u201cattentional capture,\u201d or the ability of environmental stimuli to affect our attention even after their cessation, and the need for regulations in school construction that address the known impact of background noise. \u201cInsulation for walls, doors, and windows is all readily available. When decision-makers are presented with information about the impact of noise on developing young minds, they need to ensure that schools and classrooms are optimized for attention, and that means minimizing noise.\u201d Zion-Golumbic says. \u201cToo often, we blame kids for not paying attention in class, when in fact we\u2019ve placed them in situations where attention is extremely difficult to maintain. Along with providing insight into how our brains work, this research can the provide backing for critical real-world action.\u201d<\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1650"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2545,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions\/2545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}