News Article

Marywood University's Attention Disorders Clinic will host its first Focus Festival on Wednesday, April 21 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in the Latour Room, Nazereth Center. The Focus Festival will increase student awareness of the factors that enhance and impair attention and concentration. Students will compete in a variety of attention and memory challenges, as well as learn about web sites that can improve attention, concentration, and working memory. Students also have the opportunity to play games that actually move objects based on "brain activity."

The ability to attend, concentrate, and focus is vitally needed for success at a collegiate level. However, lifestyle choices, undiagnosed or insufficiently treated medical conditions, and unrecognized psychiatric disorders (ADD/ADHD) can significantly impair these critical abilities. To increase awareness and improve attention, concentration, and working memory, the Attention Disorders Clinic will host its first Focus Festival. Games include Mind Ball, which essentially is a type of "tug-of-war" with your brain. Students will wear a band of EEG sensors and will attempt to move a sphere away from their goal box into their opponents', and whoever is concentrating more moves the ball into the other goal and wins. (There is no pain or risk associated with wearing the device.)

The Focus Festival will have live music, food, and prizes.