Class 19 - Attention and neglect syndromes

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

Selective awareness of the environment

Question 2

What is consciousness?

Answer 2

Awareness and awareness of awareness

Question 3

Is attention conscious?

Answer 3

Ongoing debate - non verbal processing, blindsight, blind touch

Question 4

What types of processing make up attention?

Answer 4

Automatic processing and conscious processing

Question 5

What is the difference between bottom up and top down processing in conscious processing?

Answer 5

Bottom up = outside stimulus catches your attention

Top down = inner thought directs attention

Question 6

What does the attention spotlight do in Treisman’s feature search?

Answer 6

Emphasize a location in vision for attention

Question 7

Do cells in V1 or TE show attentional effects?

Answer 7

TE

Question 8

Can a neuron learn to respond selectively to information in its receptive field?

Answer 8

Yes

Question 9

Why is it difficult to distinguish lines that are in similar orientations?

Answer 9

You are calling overlapping neurons responsible for each angle

Question 10

What happens when we divide attention between too many tasks?

Answer 10

Performance on tasks decrease

Question 11

What is cross modal parallel processing?

Answer 11

Attention is allocated within and between sensory modalities. directing attention to a stimulus increases brain activation in that modality

Question 12

What side of the parietal lobe fires when light is moving? When light moved in the right visual field?

Answer 12

Right and left parietal lobe respectively

Question 13

What does the reticular activating system do?

Answer 13

Control overall arousal

Question 14

What does the parietal cortex do for attention?

Answer 14

Enhances spatial attention

Question 15

What does the visual and posterior temporal cortex do for attention?

Answer 15

Selects object features

Question 16

What does the inferior temporal region do in attention?

Answer 16

Selects objects

Question 17

What does the frontal eye fields do in attention?

Answer 17

Selects movement

Question 18

What system is part of engaging and disengaging?

Answer 18

Posterior parietal system

Question 19

What are the four major components of attention in the Mirsky model?

Answer 19

focus-execute, shift, sustain, encode/execute

Question 20

How does the attentional system choose important sensory events?

Answer 20

Executive attention might induce neural synchrony

Question 21

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 21

Failure to notice something during performance of another task

Question 22

What is change blindness?

Answer 22

Failure to detect changes in the presence, identity or location of objects in scenes

Question 23

What is an attentional blink?

Answer 23

Failure to notice a second stimulus if presented within 500ms of the first

Question 24

What are the two types of neglect?

Answer 24

Attentional and intentional neglect

Question 25

What is the difference between egocentric and allocentric neglect?

Answer 25

Cannot see things on one side of themselves vs cannot see things on one side of an object

Question 26

What systems are inactivated during unconsciousness?

Answer 26

Dorsolateral prefrontal, medial frontal, posterior parietal and posterior cingulate cortex. These are highly associated area