Doomscrolling, the act of continuously consuming distressing news, has become a common behaviour in today’s digital media landscape. Concerns have emerged regarding its potential negative effects on cognitive functions, particularly attention. This project aims to explore the impact of doomscrolling on attention span by comparing individuals’ performance on attention tasks after exposure to distressing versus positive content. We will analyse differences in attention performance both within and across groups to better understand how digital content may influence cognitive performance.

Supervisor:
Dr Akanksha Gupta
Aix-Marseille University, France

I recently completed my PhD at INS, INSERM, Aix-Marseille University, France. I am a cognitive computational neuroscientist investigating human attention and audition. My work bridges experimental neuroscience (behavioral, sEEG, fMRI) and computational approaches (machine learning, coupled oscillators, graph theory). Passionate about interdisciplinary science, I also contribute to open science, mentoring, and cross-field collaborations at the intersection of neuroscience, AI, and complex systems.