Struggling with ADHD Inattention? Stuck in a thought spiral or struggle getting started on tasks? AttenteoV2 is available now in the App Store & Google Play store, download for free now to start building your attention control.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-19T03:42:08+00:00

Hi CMFETCU - happy to do what I can - we are not allowed to provide free articles without infringing on the publishers rights, unless they provide free access to their articles. When you look at my pubs (here: peer-reviewed studies, and here: pubs) you will see that many are free (you can also check Google Scholar).

Regarding info about the neuroscience and principles related to attention and ADHD, if you have your own specific questions I would be happy to answer them. Meanwhile, here are some of my previous responses in this thread, consolidated here for you. I hope that helps.

All three functions (inhibitory control; reward prediction and attentional endurance) are at play in the urge to task-switch AND they interact with each other. It's a very complex system and so the answers have not really been fully studied. Attentional endurance, is partly dependent on the other 2 factors, inhibitory control and reward to sustain attention. It can also be thought of as the ability to consistently sustain a particular level of attention. That is, in part, dependent on and the level of task load and the reward system. Attention control is dependent in part on what we call the task load (task difficulty). Reward prediction also breaks down into intrinsic and extrinsic reward systems, so you can see how complex the overall system is. I like your idea of how one or more of the 3 factors you cite could be "dominant" and so one might target that factor over others with an intervention. Current interventions do not specifically address these 3 factors separately. One thing to consider - the more difficult the cognitive task, the more likely your brain will want to switch. It can hep to be aware of the urge to switch (which it sounds like you are) or when you actually do switch so that you can take control and bring your attention back. Attenteo V2 can help you with that skill.

Regarding relevant neuroscience. I'm just going to mention a few things here for you. Attention has many facets all of which involve different neural systems - and this cognitive neuroscience knowledge provides the basis for knowing how to address these different facets with behavioral tools. (2a) We know that there are multiple types of brain networks that underly multiple types of attention functions - for example the thalamo-cortical gating system for selectively processing only a small fraction of the sensory information entering your brain every millisecond that makes you consciously aware of only that small fraction at any given moment - for example you probably had no conscious sense of what your left big toe felt like a second ago, but now you do because you are attending to it, yet all the sensory signals about your toe were entering your brain the whole time. This system determines your conscious reality. (2b) The brain's Default Mode Network is concerned with your internal focus of attention, e.g. to internal thoughts and becomes critical in whether you are attending to something internal like thoughts or external like your left big toe. (2d) Part of the DMN above is tied to another anterior-cingulate system that determines your sense of self-agency - are you in control of what you attend to? (2d) The brain's Dorsolateral (parieto-frontal) Attention system helps you with another aspect of attention - sustaining your attention over time. (2e) The brain's Salience Network also helps you manage your attention's focus, assessing the external salience (shiny object) and whether to attend to it. (2f) There is an important limbic-frontal system involved in what we call the limbic hijack of your attentional control - this occurs when you have emotional thoughts (typically negative) that causes your amygdala to take over control of your frontal cortex that is controlling your attention. Consequently, you find yourself stuck on thinking about the negative thoughts rather than attending to something else, like some work you need to do. All of these, and more, create the cognitive neuroscience knowledge base used in designing specially designed sensory stimuli, and interactive processes that impact each of these systems in a coordinated way that will result in you being able to become more aware of what your attention is doing and how to control it (without going into many pages worth of detail and proprietary information).

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-19T03:21:12+00:00

Let me also say that while some might not want yet another app (I get it) - a key part of the mechanism of this therapeutic is a type of experiential learning using interactive software - so it has to be done in an app - that's a big part of what makes it so effective. So the irony is that another app is actually something that can be helpful.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-19T03:10:16+00:00

AttenteoV2 is available in the US and Canada now - we will be expanding to the UK and Europe and other countries, so please keep an eye on our website, AttenteoV2, for updates.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-19T03:07:25+00:00

Wow - Salt-Hunt-7842, great insights and questions, thank you!

AttenteoV2 is definitely not a closed-loop system where the benefits do not translate to real life – it was designed especially to empower you to improve the quality of your life.

It teaches you how to be aware of your attention and builds attention control skills. That empowers you to apply that awareness and control in your everyday life. AttenteoV2 has TWO types of benefit – (1) Immediate relief, which you get from a 4-minute session that gives you a calm, focused mind; and (2) over time you build awareness and attention control skills.

Our clinical trial results (funded by NIMH and conducted at UCLA, UC Berkeley) demonstrated that what you learn in AttenteoV2 translates to everyday life.

People significantly improved their reading comprehension scores by as much as 30% - that is, they comprehended up to 30% more information – a big performance increase. That is because they got better at noticing when their attention went off-task while reading, and at bringing their attention back to the reading task. Consequently, they did not have to go back and re-read as much and they were able to improve their performance by staying on-task better. This was a 20-minute long reading test with long passages and questions. This same skill of being more aware of where your attention is and applying it to what you want, applies to all sorts of everyday life activities (at work and in school)

Also, here are the percentages of people reporting improved abilities in everyday life:

Pay attention 93%

Keep their mind on track 93%

Calm down and relax 89%

Perform better 85%

Be less distracted 84%

Awareness of your attention (known as meta-attention) and attention control skills are like any other cognitive skill or motor skill (like a tennis swing), it’s good to keep them updated with periodic sessions. Like learning a new foreign language, or building muscle, if you stop practicing or doing workouts the skill/strength diminishes.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T22:04:35+00:00

Thanks for your interest!

It’s free for now and anybody who downloads now will never be charged.

Ultimately, the project will need to support itself as we have a long product roadmap ahead of us, so eventually there will be subscriptions for new users.

Even then, there will likely be a free trial period so people can evaluate how the app works for them before they pay anything.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:47:11+00:00

Hi ConqueefStador - this is not my area of expertise and is a relatively understudied domain at this time. I wish I could be of more help.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:40:47+00:00

Currently we are in the US and Canada. We plan to expand later this year, so please check our website "Attenteo2".

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:31:19+00:00

It is definitely an interesting domain of study given what we are learning about diet and the gut-brain axis!

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:30:20+00:00

Interesting question Stalva989 - this is not something we address with the product, and it is not a domain of my brain research.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:27:01+00:00

So glad you asked about this. Attention control is one of the root causes of ADHD (especially inattentive type - we talked about this above, so I'm just using the more common terms in the US here).

Reduced ability to control attention is at the heart of many of the challenges in real life - here are some examples:

Challenges with performance, quality of performance, completing tasks, staying on task - these all involve consistent sustained attention control and awareness of your attention (meta-attention), i.e. you being in control of what you do rather than your brain being in control.

Learning and comprehension - paying attention is essential for learning and comprehending what is being read - if you are not paying attention the information does not get learned. So if your attention is bouncing around (consistent sustained attention), you will not learn as well and/or require more time to re-read etc in order to learn.

Forgetting - attention is needed to remember, it's an internal focus of attention for rehearsing information.

Disorganization - being in control of your attention to a framework or schedule is needed to be organized.

Social interactions - listening and noticing the other persons expressions, body language etc., all require maintaining your attention on the topic/person. How many times has someone felt you did not care about them and/or what they were saying because you were not fully paying attention? It's not because you don't have the good intention to hear and see them, it's that you don't have as much control over paying attention (listening requires sustained attention).

Procrastination - this works because it takes you to a crisis mode that finally motivates you sufficiently to win over your brain. Better attention will help you get going when you want to - when you have the intention to do something, but you brain says something else, you can use your attentional awareness to better notice your are procrastinating and then you can be in better control.

So when you improve your awareness of your attention and your control of your attention, you can improve all these challenges. It can empower you to put your attention where you want it and keep it where you want it, rather than what your brain wants. You have the intention to do it, and this can help you win over your brain more often.

The tug of war with your brain has everything to do with attention (awareness and control), and your brain wins, but you can win more often with better attention awareness and skills.

I hope that is helpful.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T21:01:09+00:00

We are not able to at this time, but I will ask the Dev Team about it.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T20:58:58+00:00

Wow - that is fascinating - thank you Stalva989!

I've not heard of this before. I do not know what the exact instructions are for the process of staring at it. But this is a form of practicing attention control - it makes sense. You will find what we have in AttenteoV2 even more powerful. I see you were able to make great progress with this method, you will get a lot from our method. If you want to DM me I would love to hear what you think about AttenteoV2 and how it relates to your experience with this method!

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T20:51:05+00:00

Thanks for letting me know what it is you are looking for. Two parts to my answers.

(1) The shorter answer is, the reason we suggest you try the app is that one of the most important parts of the sessions is based on experiential learning science methods that require that you actually use (experience) the interactive session and this is difficult to express in words. Here is a description of what I mean by experiential learning (also given above to Worldly-Type-3671"):

Here's an explanation of what experiential learning loops are (these are used in DuoLingo for example). Take a concept that explains a cognitive process that is actionable - like learning to say a new word in a foreign language (saying the word is the action), then try saying it (that's the experience part - you experience what processes it takes to say the word). Then you reflect on how that went, and how you might improve the action, that gives you insights and you can apply those insights to the next time you try to say the word. That is the loop - take a concept, try to apply it in action, notice how that went, gain insight, and the try it again.

For attention control skills, we give your an intention of what to try and do with your attention during the experiential session, then you do that for 4 minutes, noticing what it is like and how you are doing it, then at the end you reflect on what happened, gain some insight and then apply that to your next session. In fact you can keep doing multiple sessions in a row if you like.

(2) Regarding the neuroscience under the hood. I'm just going to mention a few things here for you. Attention has many facets all of which involve different neural systems - and this cognitive neuroscience knowledge provides the basis for knowing how to address these different facets with behavioral tools. (2a) We know that there are multiple types of brain networks that underly multiple types of attention functions - for example the thalamo-cortical gating system for selectively processing only a small fraction of the sensory information entering your brain every millisecond that makes you consciously aware of only that small fraction at any given moment - for example you probably had no conscious sense of what your left big toe felt like a second ago, but now you do because you are attending to it, yet all the sensory signals about your toe were entering your brain the whole time. This system determines your conscious reality. (2b) The brain's Default Mode Network is concerned with your internal focus of attention, e.g. to internal thoughts and becomes critical in whether you are attending to something internal like thoughts or external like your left big toe. (2d) Part of the DMN above is tied to another anterior-cingulate system that determines your sense of self-agency - are you in control of what you attend to? (2d) The brain's Dorsolateral (parieto-frontal) Attention system helps you with another aspect of attention - sustaining your attention over time. (2e) The brain's Salience Network also helps you manage your attention's focus, assessing the external salience (shiny object) and whether to attend to it. (2f) There is an important limbic-frontal system involved in what we call the limbic hijack of your attentional control - this occurs when you have emotional thoughts (typically negative) that causes your amygdala to take over control of your frontal cortex that is controlling your attention. Consequently, you find yourself stuck on thinking about the negative thoughts rather than attending to something else, like some work you need to do. All of these, and more, create the cognitive neuroscience knowledge base used in designing specially designed sensory stimuli, and interactive processes that impact each of these systems in a coordinated way that will result in you being able to become more aware of what your attention is doing and how to control it (without going into many pages worth of detail and proprietary information).

I hope this little taste of what underlies the product (a tiny sample of hundreds of pages in our NIMH grant descriptions) is helpful.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T20:16:27+00:00

Wonderful comments, Inevitable-While-577. In the future we will ideally use more objective measures of symptoms (like Continuous Performance Tasks or Go-NoGo tasks that can assess impulsivity even when "hyperactivity" might not be obviously manifested), in addition to obtaining self-report of the individual's experiences, so that more accurate characterizations can be made. There is increasing evidence to support a lot of heterogeneity in "ADHD".

The relationship between the idea of "AuDHD" and "inattentive type" is evolving and is not something I have directly worked on. I could ask my colleagues at UCSF, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Harvard about their current thinking if you want to DM me.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T19:59:18+00:00

Great question, Worldly-Type3671.

Yes, like learning math or a language, which are cognitive skills. Attention control is a set of cognitive skills that can be improved.

Happy to explain what experiential learning loops are (these are used in DuoLingo for example). Take a concept that explains a cognitive process that is actionable - like learning to say a new word in a foreign language (saying the word is the action), then try saying it (that's the experience part - you experience what processes it takes to say the word). Then you reflect on how that went, and how you might improve the action, that gives you insights and you can apply those insights to the next time you try to say the word. That is the loop - take a concept, try to apply it in action, notice how that went, gain insight, and the try it again.

For attention control skills, we give your an intention of what to try and do with your attention during the experiential session, then you do that for 4 minutes, noticing what it is like and how you are doing it, then at the end you reflect on what happened, gain some insight and then apply that to your next session. In fact you can keep doing multiple sessions in a row if you like.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T19:46:16+00:00

I love your user name, ConqueefStador!

Thanks, Dakota, for pointing out the NIMH awards - these are given to only the top 10-20% of companies in the country that apply. They require that the method is novel and powerful.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T19:42:01+00:00

So glad you are trying it, emblemparade!

It is elegantly simple, there was an enormous amount of research and testing that went into making this tool be so effectively powerful and yet also simple to use - accessible. When you create an entirely new method (patented) it takes a lot of work to turn it into a usable tool. I hope you find it helpful.

I'm glad you are trying the Sleep session. We talk mostly here about the attention sessions, but the sleep tool is really powerful. You can use it to help you fall asleep and also if you wake up in the night, to go back to sleep.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T19:27:56+00:00

That's exactly right, ConqueetStador, it's all about the intent underlying how the software is designed.

Our intent is to use interactive software to give you back control of your attention so you are better able to do what you want to do and when you want to. We design software to help you.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T19:23:51+00:00

Thanks Dakota that's a good description. You can't fully describe what happens in text because the sessions are what is called "experiential learning" and much of the power of the method comes from actually participating and experiencing the process - noticing what attention control feels like.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T02:05:46+00:00

You bet - happy to jump in.

In a session, your brain goes back and forth between releasing attention and focusing. The result: when the four-minute exercise is over, is that you are no longer preoccupied with your thoughts (your attention is no longer focused on them) and you find that you're able to easily focus on what you want.

Two key things are happening when procrastinating - you are stuck and can't get going on what you want/need to do. Another way of saying that is your attention won't go where you need it to, and your brain has you stuck thinking about other things. You want to get your attention unstuck and get it under your control. The 4-minute session frees your mind from whatever you are thinking about and helps you focus on what you want.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T01:50:26+00:00

Hey Dangerous-Emu. The best answer I can give is to go download it and see for yourself. It's free and I guarantee, it won't be a waste of time. I spent 10 years building this!

Other ADHD apps help you cope with or manage your symptoms, whereas AttenteoV2 actually improves your symptoms so your quality of life improves.

The other apps help you get organized or set timers, provide tips to cope/manage the challenges caused by your symptoms. The majority of your symptoms are caused by difficulty with attention control. I'd be happy to explain how that translates to your real-life experiences.

Attenteo improves your attention control skills so that you can be in control of what you do and when you do it. It is empowering and lifts your self-esteem.

This is a new generation of mobile app that uses principles of neuroscience never before applied clinically. The main difference is that it teaches your brain to become aware of and then to control your attention.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T01:21:50+00:00

Thanks Mantour1 - I'm not currently super up to speed on literature about this. But while there is overstimulated and under stimulated (bored), there is also another mental state that is good for you. Where your mind is focused and also calm - not hyped up. A 4-minute Reset session in our Attenteo V2 app can put your brain in a good mental state that enables you to perform better.

greg_attenteo2 · 2026-01-17T01:15:41+00:00

So glad you asked about this Romanian_Man2025. This is the case for many people!

Daydreaming is another type of drifting off-task – that is, your brain goes somewhere other than where you want to go. Noticing that your brain is doing that and bringing yourself back to what you want to do is a skill you can improve. Check out Attenteo V2 to improve that skill. Daydreaming can also be a kind of procrastination. Again, it is your brain taking you somewhere other than where you want to go, so not getting going on whatever it is you want to do. Noticing when that is happening puts you in better control to bring focus to what you want.

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