Attention Flashcards
Why can attention be characterized as a selective processing?
Choosing to focus on a source of information is using cognitive resources for that specific source of information at the expense of other sources of information = division of attended and unattended information.
In the unattended channel of attention, what kind of information can pass?
Only salient information (e.g., someone calling your name at a party).
Endogenous attention is a ____ process, whereas exogenous attention is a ____ process.
Words to place:
- bottom-up
- top-down
Endogenous attention is a top-down process, whereas exogenous attention is a bottom-up process.
What type of attention is the fastest to be activated between endogenous and exogenous attentions?
Exogenous.
Inhibition of return is associated to endogenous or exogenous attention? What type of attention always requires executive control?
Exogenous.
Endogenous.
What is the difference between overt and covert attention?
In overt attention, head and eyes are oriented toward attended information source. In covert attention, head and eyes are not oriented toward the information source.
What does measure eye-tracking devices?
Saccades and fixations.
Define supramodal attention.
Attended stimuli in one modality recruits the attention of another modality.
True or false: there is a strong overlap between circuits that control attention and neural circuits that govern head and eye movements.
True.
What are the three main structures/areas controlling attention?
- Inferior parietal lobe
- Frontal eye fields
- Superior colliculi
True or false: there is no dominance of the right or the left hemisphere over the other.
False: right hemisphere dominating. Shown with hemispatial neglect.
Hemispatial neglect syndrome arises from damage to what brain area?
Right parietal lobe (impairing left visual field).
True or false: salient information can be processed in the left visual field of patient suffering from hemispatial neglect.
True.
What is the principal function of FEF?
Generate saccadic eye movements to spatial locations in the visual field that warrant attention.
What task could be impaired by a lesion to the FEF?
Task switching/ignoring irrelevant info.
To what structure is linked the Sprague effect? What is it?
To the superior colliculi. Sprague effect: lesion to left superior colliculus (information processed contralaterally at this level) can compensate the attention loss in the left visual field (caused by hemispatial neflect) by reducing visuospatial input from right visual field -> attentional thresholds of the left and right visual fields are closer to one another.
In the attentional control network, what are the two structures responsible for endogenous attention? The two structures responsible for exogenous attention?
Endogenous:
- Fontal parietal aera
- FEF
Exogenous:
- Ventrolateral frontal cortex
- Temporal parietal junction
Balint syndrome arises from damage to what brain areas? What impairment does it cause?
Dorsal posterior parietal and lateral occipital cortices.
No more than one stimulus can be attended at the same time, even if stimuli are in the same modality and regardless of their distance.
True or false: balint syndrome is a spatial impairment of attention.
False.
Is saliency a property of brain networks or of external stimuli?
Property of external stimuli.
Name five factors that can determine saliency.
- Goals directed factor
- Emotional factor
- Motivational components
- Physical attributes
- Novelty factor
