Class 3 - Attention 1 Flashcards
What kinds of attention are there
Arousal
Sustained attention / vigilance
Selective attention
Divided attention
Arousal
sensitivity to stimulation
Sustained attention / vigilance
Attention span
focusing on something for a long time
Selective attention
“pay attention”
processing relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information
Divided attention
multitasking
splitting attention across different tasks
Noradrenaline
norepinephrine (NE)
Mobilizes brain by enhancing sensory processing
Arousal and attention role - Shut off (not see it) during REM sleep
Flight in fight or flight
norepinephrine Nuclei in
locus coeruleus
Main NT for sympathetic nervous system
norepinephrine
Acetylcholine receptor subtypes
Nicotinic (ionotropic) - nicotine mimics atctivity of AcH
Muscarinic (metabotropic)
Acetylcholine cell bodies in
pons, midbrain, basal forebrain
Acetylcholine (Ach)
Maintains cortical excitability, Decreased in anaesthesia, Selective attention, motivation, reward
Classifying selective attention
Top-down vs. bottom-up
Top-down selective attention
Goal directed voluntary attention (endo)
Knowledge, expectations, goals - drive allocation of attention
Bottom-up selective attention
Stimulus directed
Reflexively (captured) (exo)
Sensory input captures attention allocation
(suddenly slam podium - not own attention draw to spot, sudden stimulus draw attention)
Overt attention
focusing and perceiving what eyes are fixated on
Fixation
directing fovea to particular spot
Saccades
movement of eyes, shifting fovea to different spots
Covert attention
pay attention without looking at (fixating on) them
focusing and perceiving things outside of foveation
Helmholz (1894) first tested covert attention by
fixating his eyes while attending to another part of visual fields
-When lit up, he could only recall letters from parts he attended to
Early selection
items are selected for further processing before perceptual analysis is completed
only focus on on one side of screen
Late selection
items are selected for after perceptual analysis, at the level of semantic analysis
after access meanings - process all things either left or right - but only interested in one feature - than focus on
Cocktail party effect
Dichotic listening
- Little information from unattended ear processed
Early selection based on location
Dichotic listening
presenting different inputs to each ear
- Asked to repeat inputs to one ear
- Little information from unattended ear processed
own name effect
Attention captured with subject’s name in unattended stream
Unattended stream can interfere with
memory for attended stream
Posner cuing task
covert attention to position of a target
Endogenous cuing
Posner cuing task
Exogenous cuing
Brief enhancement of response within 50-200 ms of presenting a reflexive cue (e.g. bright light)
Inhibition of return
inhibiting the return of attention to the cued location
Inhibition of return is demonstrated by
slower RT and reduced ERP amplitude
Visual search
finding a specific stimulus in a mix of multiple stimuli
Conjunction search
a search for an object in an array that combines two or more features
Pop-Out search
a search for an object in an array that can be identified by one feature
Visual attention in conjunction searches modulates
visuospatial attention in a similar way to endogenous cuing
What is attention?
Definition constantly changing
predicated by what we might think is important
RAS
NA AcH - involved in arousal and vigilance
Nicotine theory of why do people vape
facilitate selective attention
bind to nicotinic receptors
Shape requires
integration of what lines where
may need to pay attention to in order to fully process
(compared to theirs such as location, color, number)
things with a lot of personal aspects (ex. name)
pass through early processing
Valid cue
target is where cue is
Balint’s syndrome
bilateral damage to regions of the posterior parietal and occipital cortex that causes a severe disturbance of visual attention and awareness where only one or a small subset of available objects is preceded at any time and is mis located in space
Attention influences how we code
sensory inputs, store that information, process it, and act on it to survive in a challenging world.
