Chap 22: Attention and Consciousness

Question 1

What is the difference between automatic vs conscious processes ?

Answer 1

1. Automatic (bottom-up)
   - automatic behaviors occurring without intention or awareness
   - ex. stopping at a red light, red light triggers the body to stop
2. Conscious (top-down)
   - selective focused attention
   - ex. looking for a specific street sign, requires a desire to find a street, then selectively focusing on street signs as you’re driving

Question 2

Describe the synchrony hypothesis of attention

Answer 2

attention system induces synchrony between neurons that assess the sensory signal
- the signal is around 40Hz

Question 3

What is the competeition framework of attention ?

Answer 3

competition occurs since we cannot process everything at once, thus attention is a bias to resolve the competition

Question 4

What brain areas are affected by the competition framework ?

Answer 4

• affects the anterior brain including the prefrontal cortex

Question 5

What brain structures are involved in arousal ?

Answer 5

• the reticular activating system (RAS)
• the cholinergic and noradrenergic
• the thalamus

Question 6

What is the role of the RAS in attention ?

Answer 6

• maintains alertness
• damage causes coma

Question 7

What is the role of the thalamus in attention ?

Answer 7

• modulates alertness via the dorsomedial intralaminar and reticular nuclei (the RN inhibits the thalamus)

Question 8

What is the role of the the cholinergic and noradrenergic systems in attention ?

Answer 8

• creates arousal

Question 9

What is selective vs divided attention ?

Answer 9

selective: discriminating between relevant vs irrelevant stimuli (role of the pulvinar)
divided: allocating resources for multiple tasks at the same time

Question 10

What brain structures are important for selective attention ?

Answer 10

1. the pulvinar in the thalamus discriminates stimuli
2. Pulvinar projects to the posterior parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal cortex
3. Pulvinar receives input from midbrain colliculus
4. Superior colliculus aligns visual attention to specific spatial location

Question 11

What are the important components of the consciousness system ?

Answer 11

• anterior and posterior cingulate cortex
• medial frontal cortex
• frontal and parietal association cortex

Question 12

What are the 4 prerequisites for consciousness ?

Answer 12

1. Arousal
2. Perception
3. Attention
4. Working memory

Question 13

Describe the timeline of consciousness

Answer 13

prerequisites of consciousness contribute to whether or not an event reaches conscious awareness
- following the event post-perceptual processing occurs, and encoding into memory systems

Question 14

Describe the arousal stage of consciousness

Answer 14

• arousal is necessary but not sufficient for consciousness
• attentional engagement is is needed at the time of the event for the stimulus to reach conscious awareness
• for a conscious event to be available later, it must reach the medial temporal memory circuit

Question 15

Which brain regions are inactive when we are unconscious ?

Question 16

Describe the coma state

Answer 16

• transient state where the eyes remain closed
• disturbances to normal sleep and wake cycle
• results from TBI lasting approx 10-14 days

Question 17

Describe the minimally conscious state

Answer 17

• limited wakeful activity
• limited awareness of self and environment
• deep brain stimulation can brain patients back to life but it is not permanent

Question 18

Describe locked-in syndrome

Answer 18

• NOT a disorder of consciousness
• a fully conscious state that appears as a coma or vegetative state

Question 19

What is sensory memory ?

Answer 19

• the earliest step in information processing
• large capacity, very rapid, but short-lived

Question 20

What are Posners 3 attentional networks ?

Answer 20

1. Alerting
2. Orienting
3. Executive

Question 21

Describe the alerting system

Answer 21

increases and maintains readiness for impending stimulus
- relies on norepinephrine
- tonic alertness (maintenance) belongs to the right hemisphere, parietal and frontal regions)
- phasic alertness (processing from event to event), relies on left hemisphere

Question 22

Describe the orienting system

Answer 22

selecting specific information/stimuli either overtly or covertly
- relies cholinergic system
1. dorsal system ***

Question 23

Describe the executive system

Answer 23

relates to task instructions prior to and during the task
- no universal agreement on definition
- relied on dopamine system