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cognitive neuroscience > Attention > Flashcards

Attention Flashcards

1
Q

alertness and arousal

A

the most basic levels of attention

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2
Q

vigilance

A

the ability to maintain alertness continuously over time

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3
Q

selective attention

A

the selection of information essential to a task

mental effort required

focusing and concentrating

cocktail party effect

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4
Q

divided attention

A

spit attention across tasks

multitasking

no concensus

prefrontal regions? - increased activity, greater demands on brain. ie/ talking on phone while driving

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5
Q

main regions in the brain involved with attention

A

superior colliculus
thalamus (LGN and Pulvinar)
Anterior cingulate cortex
Parietal cortex

Frontal cortex
Reticular activating system (RAS)

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6
Q

reticular activating system

A

responsible for overall arousal and sleep-wake cycles

ventral and dorsal substream

damage can result in coma

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7
Q

ventral subsystem of RAS

A

projects to the cortex via the basal forebrain

a branch from the raphe nucleus relies on serotonin

a branch from the locus coeruleus relies on noepinephrine

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8
Q

dorsal subsystem of RAS

A

projects to the cortex via the thalamus

relies of ACh

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9
Q

vigilance and sustained attention

A

needs both the cholinergic and noradrenergic systems

more effort needed to sustain attention requires more ach

the noradrenergic system prepares the brain to receive info - focus on certain area that receive info first

thalamus interfaces between arousal and sustained attention

cortical regions (especially right hemisphere) involved
- activation of right hemisphere seen in vigilance tasks

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10
Q

cocktail party effect

A

choosing what we are wanting to listen to and then ignoring the rest

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11
Q

bottom-up attention selection

A

some intrinsic aspect of the stimulus itself causes it to be attended

something in the enviroment

developed first as it is important for survival

ie/ a loud sound, plate dropping and breaking

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12
Q

top-down attentional selection

A

the person determines how to direct his or her attention

ie/ you might direct your attention to a particular person

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13
Q

stimulus-driven/involuntary attention

A

mediated by subcortical areas (particularly the superior colliculus)

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14
Q

goal driven/ voluntary attention

A

mediated by cortical areas (parietal and frontal corticies)

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15
Q

early selection viewpoint

A

selection occurs at an early stage of processing, before items are identified

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16
Q

late selection viewpoint

A

selection occurs only after sensory processing is complete and items have been identified and categorized

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17
Q

automatic orienting in the superior colliculus

A

plays a role in the localization of visual stimuli, the control of saccades, and stimulus driven attention shifts to stimuli in visual space

good for attentional processing and liking eye movements
- has a set of neurons that respond quickly to visual stimuli
- has a retinotopic map of the contralateral side of space
- has a different set of neurons sensitive to both sensory characteristics and to orienting movement

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18
Q

superior colliculus lesions

A

disrupts attentional shift - general slowing of responses, possibly because of an impaired ability to localize stimuli

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19
Q

inferior colliculus

A

role in auditory info

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20
Q

Lateral geniculate nucleus

A

plays gate keeper to the cortex

depending of the focus of attention is act to
- enhance relevant info
- surpress irrelevant info

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21
Q

pulvinar

A

aids in regulating info transmission between cortical regions that are processing info relevant to attention

aids in synchronizing activity between those brain regions

filtering: greater activation of the pulvinar when identifying small targets surrounded by distractors as opposed to large targets with no distractors

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22
Q

selective attention and the parietal lobe

A

involved in overall allocation of attentional resources to a particular stimulus or task

plays a role in selecting info in a more precise manner after the early gating of sensory information by the thalamus

types of attentional selection (top-down/bottom-up)

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23
Q

intraparietal sulcus

A

where these two streams of info are thought to be integrated

24
Q

superior parietal lobe

A

involved in top-down influences on attention directed by the person’s goals or desires rather than stimuli in the environment

25
Q

inferior parietal lobe of right hemisphere

A

more involved in more bottom-up aspects of attentional control

26
Q

(preattentive/parallel search)

A

targets defined by only one feature will “pop out”

type of feature integration theory

27
Q

attentive/ serial search

A

targets defined by feature combinations requires attention to “glue” features together

28
Q

feature integration theory

A

attention allows features of an item to be bound together

basic features are detected and automatically processed and proceed in parallel across all locations

29
Q

damage to parietal regions

A

disrupts the ability to bind features together

can not detect the conjunction of features, can detect a single feature

30
Q

salience maps

A

some info is processed relatively automatically (bottom-up) helps to influence where attention is directed

top-down like your current goal also influences where your attention is directed

salience map is constructed from this to help prioritize where attention should be directed

31
Q

feature maps

A

signal for presence of each features

attention to a master map location provides access to information at that location in each of the feature maps

this integrates the features possessed by the item at that location

32
Q

illusory conjunctions

A

attention is required to combine features of an object

attention is also required to precisely determine the locations of object features

when attention is limited, may not properly put features together in the right location

33
Q

inattentional and change blindness

A

when attention is focused at a location or on an object, it is necessarily withdrawn from other locations and object

unattended objects are processed less efficiently than the object that is attended to

something has to be important to you for you to pay attention; we do not remember what we do not pay attention to

34
Q

automaticity

A

skills and tasked can become automatic, requiring minimal attention to perform, freeing up attentional capacity to focus on other things

multi-tasking can be possible

35
Q

anterior cingulate

A

intracranial recordings show alterations in activity just prior to and after a response

neuroimaging findings suggest that these regions specifically increase their activity when response mappings are hard

36
Q

lateral prefrontal cortex

A

serve as sources for top-down attentional control, providing the abstract category or goal that should guide attention

send signals to posterior brain regions that act as the sites of attentional control that are actively involved in the selection process

bias processing towards particular info

37
Q

what are the three systems attention can be divided into

A

alerting
orienting
executive attention

38
Q

alerting

A

allows brain to maintain a tonic level of arousal and to respond to signals warning of upcoming events

involves the locus coeruleus, thalamic regions, frontal and parietal regions of the cortex; linked to noepinephrine

39
Q

orienting

A

aligns attention with sensory signals and selects among multiple sensory inputs

involves the superior colliculus, parietal areas and frontal eye fields; linked to Ach

40
Q

executive attentions

A

controls how attention is directed according to goals and desires

involves the basal gangli, lateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate; linked to dopamine

41
Q

dorsal attention system

A

system prepares and applies goal oriented (top-down) selection of stimuli and responses

composed of portions of the intraparietal cortex, superior frontal cortex and frontal eye fields

42
Q

ventral attention system

A

system detect and reorients attention to behaviourally relevant stimuli, especially when salient or unexpected

composed of temproparietal cortex, inferior frontal cortex and anterior insula

mainly lateralized to the right hemisphere

43
Q

executive attention deficits

A

symptoms: difficulty concentrating, increased distractability, poorer ability to divide of sustain focused attention, impaired response inhibition

primarily associated with frontal cortex dysfunction

typically caused by brain diseases, also injuries (such as concussions)

44
Q

spatial attention deficits

A

deficits associated with difficulty processing info at specific locations

syptoms: can include neglect, impaired search, impaired attentional disengagement

primarily associated with parietal cortex dysfunction

typically caused by damage due to strokes, also injuries

45
Q

symptoms of ADHD

A

excessive distractibility
impulsivity
restlessness
lack of inhibition
uneven attentional span
underfocusing and hyperfocusing

46
Q

hypotheses of ADHD

A

surpressed frontal lobe activity
dysregulation of default mode network
disruption of attentional filtering by thalams
disruption of right hemisphere function
underproduction of dopamine

47
Q

differences between ADHD brain and non-ADHD brain

A

slight reduction in size of the frontal lobes and basal ganglia

differences are not consistant enough to provide a diagnostic test but do correlate with the symptoms

frontal lobe: helps with organization, time management and decision-making

basal ganglia” help to regulate moods and to control impulsive outbursts

48
Q

hemineglect

A

patients with this do not pay attention to one side of space

mainly considered a spatial phenomenon

the neglect of info occurs with reference to a spatial frame

all types of info, regardless of modality are ignored on the neglected side of space

49
Q

manifestation of hemineglect

A

individuals do not pay attention to the side of space contralateral to their lesion

symptoms: vary depending on time since brain damage
- neglect- usually severe at first
- over time (or if damage is mild) may only be observed under conditions of double simultaneous stimulation; referred to as extinction

50
Q

patients with right hemisphere lesionn

A

may fail to:
notice items on the left side of the world - spatial neglect
draw the left side of object - allocentric neglect
use the left side of the body - personal neglect

more prominent then left hemisphere damage
- possibly that the right hemisphere has a greater role in attention

51
Q

extinction

A

awareness of object in the left visual field provided there are no objects in the right visual fields

when objects are in the right visual field, other visual field becomes neglected again

52
Q

object-based neglect

A

neglect the left half of the object, regardless of the position of the stimulus in space

53
Q

when are neglected stimuli processed

A

at early stages of the visual system, so they do influence performance in subtle ways

because they do not gain access to higher-order visual processing areas, they are not perceived consciously

54
Q

hemineglect theories

A

internal mental representation of the left space is lost

other theories arise from competition between hemispheres
- sensory stimuli on the non-neglected side of space prevents these patients from attending to the info on the neglected side. right parietal, biasing attention towards its preference

the greater the imbalance ( the weaker the damaged side is) - the more attention is drawn to the preference of the intact side

55
Q

evidence of competition theory

A

patients with parietal lobe lesions have difficulty disengaging attention from the non-neglected side

patients show less neglect when they “cancel items by erasing them, thereby reducing competing info on the non-neglected side

56
Q

treating hemineglect

A

using TMS or tDCS have attempted to:
- down-regulate activity in the left hemisphere, up-regulate activity in the damaged right hemisphere or both

other approaces use methods that orient attention and action to the left side of space

top- down approaches teach patients to guide their attention with aid from a therapist of using training in a virtual reality environment

many patients can recover

57
Q

traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)

A

the effects on TBI on attention depends on the location of the injury. (frontal or parietal lobe, specific area within), but can include

poor concentration and lack of “mental energy”
increased interference by distractors
slower detection of targets during search
impaired capacity of divided attention
increased stroop interference
reduced activation of executive attention areas
attentional neglect
mental slowing

cognitive neuroscience (9 decks)

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