Lec 6: Attention

Question 1

Filter Theory

Answer 1

• information that gets in is goal-oriented and relevant to current circumstances and what doesn’t is gone forever
• filter selects info early on in processing, happens so early that you haven’t even analyzed what the info is
• cannot explain things like the cocktail party effect

Question 2

Attenuation Theory

Answer 2

• involves the early selection from the filter theory
• but adds on late selection
• not everything is being filtered out and discarded
• some info gets put on the “backburner”
• if the info then becomes important, we can switch our attention to it

Question 3

Default Mode Network

Answer 3

helps think to ourselves internally

Question 4

Central executive network

Answer 4

helps control attention for the external world

Question 5

enhancement

Answer 5

amplification or increased processing of certain sensory information that is the focus of attention

Question 6

suppression

Answer 6

inhibition or reduction in processing of irrelevant or distracting information that is outside the focus of attention

Question 7

right N170

Answer 7

• ERP signal sensitive to faces
  N = negative
  170 = you see this brain wave 170 ms after you see a face
• we process faces we are trying to remember substantially faster than faces we are trying to ignore

Question 8

mental functions linked with the DMN

Answer 8

• autobiographical memory
• envisioning the future
• theory of mind
• moral decision making

Question 9

salience network

Answer 9

• switches between DMN and CE
• helps decide what is most important based on your needs
• addiction and ADHD can be due to the hijacking of this network

Question 10

Triple network model

Answer 10

1. DMN
2. CE
3. Salience network

Question 11

Suppression and enhancement in aging

Answer 11

in a study…
- find that enhancement is fine
- no evidence of suppression
- which suggests enhancement and suppression may be controlled by different brain areas

Question 12

Deficient sensory input gating

Answer 12

• can be caused by frontal lobe damage
• disruption or failure in the brain’s ability to regulate or filter incoming sensory information
• causes increased processing demands

Question 13

Stroop Task and Attentional Control

Answer 13

• can show us how attentional control can put the brakes on automatic processing
• see an increased activity in the DLPFC in this region when given the instruction to name the colour of the word even before the trial begins
• this is preparing attention to respond correctly
• The ACC registers conflict and turns on when there are 2 pieces of info and it is unclear which to go with

Question 14

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) in Stroop task

Answer 14

• part of frontal lobe crucial for attentional control
• damage to this area would cause you to keep keeping the word even when given the colour instruction

Question 15

Functional connectivity analyses

Answer 15

• uses fMRI
• looks at which other areas of the brain have similar activity to another activated area
• can help discover neural networks
• high correlation in activity can infer brain areas are working together
• how DMN was discovered

Question 16

unilateral spatial neglect (or just - neglect)

Answer 16

• results when brain’s attention network is damage in one hemisphere
• right-hemisphere lesion biases attention toward the right, resulting in neglect of what is going on in the left visual field
• behave as if left regions of space and left parts of object just do not exist
• can also affect imagination and memory

Question 17

selective attention

Answer 17

• allocation of attention among relevant inputs, thoughts, and actions while simultaneously ignoring irrelevant or distracting one
• ability to prioritize and attend to some things and not others

Question 18

Line cancellation test and neglect

Answer 18

• given sheet of paper containing horizontal lines and asked to bisect them in the middle
• patients with left-sided neglect tend to bisect lines to the right of the midline

Question 19

extinction

Answer 19

• when simple flashes of light are shown at different single locations within the visual field of a neglect patient, they can see each stimulus
• neglect becomes obvious when presented with two stimuli in each field, fail to act on contralesional stimulus

Question 20

simultanagonisa

Answer 20

difficulty in perceiving the visual field as a whole scene

Question 21

ocular apaxia

Answer 21

deficit in making eye movements to scan the visual field, resulting in the inability to guide eye movements voluntarily

Question 22

optic ataxia

Answer 22

• deficit in visually guided reaching or hand-eye coordination
• have difficulty reaching for objects accurately, even though they can see the objects clearly.

Question 23

Bálint’s syndrome

Answer 23

• caused by damage to the posterior parietal cortex that leads to three major symptoms
  1. simultanagonisa
  2. ocular apaxia
  3. optic ataxia

Question 24

overt attention

Answer 24

When you turn your head to orient toward a stimulus

Question 25

covert attention

Answer 25

directing attention without overly changing sensory receptors
ex. attending to a conversation without turning the eyes and head towards a conversation