attention

Question 1

Top-down (goal-oriented)

Answer 1

• you choose what to focus on
• temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)

Question 2

Bottom-up (stimulus driven)

Answer 2

• something in the environment demands attention (ex: a clap)
• superior parietal lobe (SPL) –> damage to this leads to inability to focus

Question 3

the units of attention

Answer 3

space
time
features, objects
modalities

Question 4

spatial orienting

Answer 4

-effective stimulus in isolation
- experiment: Stare at either the effective or ineffective stimulus –> The firing rate of the ineffective stimulus is less

Question 5

change blindness

Answer 5

Blindness exists for changes in modalities other than vision
Airplane example (changing color or parts –> if something is not brought to attention –> you never know it existed or changed)

Question 6

object-based orienting

Answer 6

Locate FFA (fusiform face area)
Locate PPA (parahippocampal place area)

Question 7

Selection: Modality

Answer 7

Task: subjects are presented with visual and auditory stimuli simultaneously
However, are only asked to attend one at a time
1) pay attention to auditory stimulus – Hold Audition
2) pay attention to visual stimulus – hold vision
3) stop attending to vision and start attending to auditory stim – shift to audition
4) stop attending to auditory stimulus and start attending to visual stim – shift to vision
- Changes in the brain tracked with fMRI

Question 8

Resolves Competition for Resource: Experiment 1

Answer 8

Sequential condition (V1)–> Stimulus presented sequentially in 1 of the 4 locations (results –> greater signal change)
Simultaneous condition (V2) –> Stimulus presented together in all four conditions (results –> signal change is suppressed –> less activation when multiple stimuli are present –> due to a capacity limitation inhibiting each other) –> due to many to one convergents

Question 9

Resolves Competition for Resource: Experiment 2

Answer 9

2 x 2 Design
1) presentation conditions (Seq/Sim)
2) attention condition (ATT/UN-ATT)
Four blocks of visual stimulation
(SEQ-SIM-SIM-SEQ) – (ATT/UN-ATT)

• signal at V4 and TEO is significantly greater during directed attention
• strongest reduction of suppression is seen in V4 and IT