L22 - Attention Flashcards
Define attention
The process by which the mind chooses from among the various stimuli that strike the senses at any given moment.
- Approximately how many pieces of information do we take in every second?
- How many do we process?
- 11 million
- 60, and conscious of less
What is endogenous attention?
Voluntary attention
top-down (or goal driven)
determined by current individual goals, learned priorities, evolutionary adaptations
What is exogenous attention?
Reflexive attention
bottom-up (or stimulus-driven)
determined by stimuli in current situation (e.g. loud bang)
If something pops out to us and grabs our attention naturally, this is due to which type of attention?
Reflexive (exogenous) attention
Define arousal
Global physiological and psychological state of the organism
What is the relationship between arousal and attention?
Our level of arousal can influence our attention to determine what becomes conscious or not.
What are attentional control mechanisms?
Mechanisms that influence particular stages of information processing and involve specific but distributed brain networks
(“selection” of inputs or outputs)
(e.g. exogenous vs endogenous)
What is overt attention?
Turning one’s head to orient towards a stimulus
What is covert attention?
Not facing the stimulus while trying to pay attention to it
(e.g. listening to someone while appearing to read a book)
What are the two pathways of attention?
Dorsal (on top)
Ventral (underneath)
In this experiment on attention affects using early sensory ERPs -
- What does P1 represent?
- What does N1 represent?
- Neural activity for the visual cortex (very early response to visual attention)
Good marker for the popout feature of stimuli
- Spatial processing of sensory information
When looking left (at the stimulus) the ERP amplitude was stronger than when looking right (away from stimulus)
What do this experiment’s results mean in regard to attention?
Attention produces more activation of visual spatial attention for stimuli that are occurring in an attended spatial region.
Can humans effectively attend to more than one stream of information at a time?
No, we instead flick back and forward quickly and we fill in the gaps of what we have missed.
When is it easier for us to divide our attention?
When we are doing a task we are very familiar and well practised with that requires little conscious awareness.
Auditory stimuli generates higher levels of ERPs when paying attention to it than when not.
True or False
True
Does spatial attention enhance the response of neurons (simple cells)?
Yes
Where is visual spatial attention located in the brain according to fMRI?
Visual cortex
What part of the visual cortex is responsible for attention to motion?
MT/V5
What part of the brain was responsible for feature attention (e.g. colour)?
V4v
Where do fMRI scans show there is activation when there is an invalidly cued target (exogenous or ‘pop-out’)?
Temporo-parietal junction
Explain the ventral attention pathway in the brain.
- Information enters from the visual cortex into the temporo-parietal junction
- Then goes to the ventral frontal cortex
Why is the ventral pathway ‘bottom-up’ reorienting of attention?
Because it originates from sensory areas (exogenous) and then goes towards to frontal lobe.
Important for stimulus-driven attention
Why is the dorsal pathway considered ‘top-down’ attention processing?
Because it originates in the pre-frontal cortex and flows down to the sensory areas.
Important for goal-directed attention and spatial orienting
What areas of the brain are involved in the dorsal pathway?
dorsal-lateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPFC)
medial frontal cortex (MFG)
inferior parietal cortex (IPC)
What were the results of the moving stimulus task in relation to the dorsal attention network?
The dorsal attention network is motion sensitive.
Dorsal attention network increased inactivation when people are paying attention (in the active vs. the passive task)
(If people are paying attention to motion they will produce more ERPs in the dorsal network)
What are the mechanisms involved in the dorsal attention network when orienting?
Inferior Parietal Sulcus (IPS)
Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL)
Frontal Eye Fields (FEF)
Eye movement
What part of the brain helps us switch from one pathway of attention to the other?
Inferior-frontal junction
People who have hemispatial neglect elicit what symptoms?
An impaired ability to direct attention to one side of their visual field.
What part of the brain is damaged in patients with hemispatial neglect?
parietal and frontal cortices
