8. The brain is conscious Flashcards
what is iconic memory?
brief sensory buffer that stores incoming sensory information
what are the 2 functions of attention?
attention:
- distribution of processing resources across stimuli and space
- binding of different aspects (features) of stimuli
endogenous vs exogenous cueing
> difference in validity effect?
exogenous cue effects attention faster
endogenous cue longer active
visual neglect
> patients have trouble with?
visual neglect
> patients have trouble with shifting attention (in case of and invalid cue)
> so possibly no problem with inital perception
what does TMS over parietal lobes do in a search task?
> conjunction search is impaired
> pop out search is not impaired
what is object base neglect?
object based neglect:
> patients do attend to objects on the left side of space but omit to attend to one half of the object itself
> this happens even when the object is turned (e.g. falling to the right side)
what is pseudo neglect?
pseudo neglect:
> in humans the right hemisphere is specialized in spatial tasks
> this results in a tendency to pay more attention to the left side of space = pseudo neglect
what is the argument against Feature integration Theory
by Duncan and Humphreys?
Duncan and Humphreys
> there is some feature binding prior to attention
> this is because performance is related to how similar distractors are to each other
what does the “winner take all” network do?
part of what model?
winner take all model (WTA)
> selects the most salient location on a combined saliency map
> it also inhibits competing locations
> this is part of the brain model for visual attention by Itti and Koch (2002)
what does the pulvinar nucleus (thalamus) do?
pulvinar nucleus
> cotains a visuotopical map and brings together saliency cues and their locations in all sensory feature maps
which brain areas are responsible for the “self als observer” processes?
the precuneus and the medial prefrontal region
evidence for unusual states of mind: what can stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex evoke?
> it can evoke damatic changes in experienced body space
> out of body experiences
why do we need attention?
4 reasons
- information selection for further processing
- only select important information to avoid sensory overload
- attention is directed to locations in space (space is a common dimension of different sensory systems and motor output)
- may be needed to bind together different aspects of conscious perception
“dreaming is a hypofrontal state”
> what does this mean?
while dreaming our brain show decreased activity in the frontal lobe
> this is associated with the surreal and nonrational nature of dreams
> lower level of executive control
memory consolidation: which type of sleep consolidates which types of memories?
slow wave sleep: explicit memories
REM sleep: procedural tasks, perhaps implicit memories
