Topic 5 (Attention) Lecture 2 (Neural basis of attention)

Question 1

What is the research and implications of Posner and Snyder (1975)?

Answer 1

• Participants were presented with a prime which was either the same or similar to the target stimulus
• Participants were asked to indicate whether two letters were the same or different
• Before the seeing each letters participants would recieve one of 3 warnings:
  a plus sign
  a prime warning: which was one of the letters
  a misleading warning: a letter not appearing in the target pair
• In some conditions, the prime warning was consistent and reliable (meaning it would often occur) and in other conditions it wasn’t
• There was faster reaction times in the primed condition with high reliability, and slower reaction times in the misleading condition with high reliability
• However, this was less the case when the primed or misleading conditions had low reliability

IMPLICATION

• Expecting to see a stimulus is enough to facilitate its processing
• This shows that a wider system is involved in processing information even before it is presented to the visual field

Question 2

According to Posner and Rao, what are 3 attention processes?

Answer 2

Alerting (the capacity to maintain a state of alert arousal)
Orienting (The ability to shift attention from one thing to another)
Executive

Question 3

Describe Fan Et Als Attention Network Test study method

Answer 3

• Participants were shown a number of different screens
• The first screen contained either a fixation cross, a cue or both
• This was followed by a screen featuring just the fixation cross
• The final target screen showed a fixation cross with five arrows
• For some the directions of the arrows were congruent and some they were incongruent
• Participants were eplaced in fMRI scanners whilst undergoing the study, where they were asked to press a button recognising the direction of the centre arrow

Question 4

According to Fan et als study, what areas of the brain are involved in alerting attention?

Answer 4

Thalamus

Posterior Area

Frontal Area

Question 5

According to Fan et als study, what areas of the brain are involved in orienting attention?

Answer 5

Superior colliculus

Pulvinar

Temporoparietal junction

Superior parietal lobe

Frontal eye field

Question 6

According to fan et als study, what areas of the brain are involved in executive attention?

Answer 6

Anterior cingulate gyrus

Prefrontal cortex

Question 7

What were the hypothesis and results of Fan et al’s study on attention networking regarding ALERTING?

Answer 7

Alerting attention was measured as the performance on the task with no cue, compared to the performance on the task where there was a cue (as the cue functions by incrasing vigilance)

It was hypothesised that the frontal lobe and parietal lobe would be activated by this process. It was also predicted that activation would be predominantly in the right hemisphere

The hypothesis was based on the association with the norepinephrine network, which is associated with an alert state

They were correct as they found that there was activity in the frontal area (frontal lobe), the posterior area (parietal lobe) and the thalamus when this was the case

Question 8

What were the hypothesis and results of Fan Et Als study on ORIENTING?

Answer 8

• The orienting effect was measured as the performance with a spatial cue compared to the performance with a centre cue. (This is because with the centre cue condition, participants must shift attention to the position of the arrows, however this is not the case in the spatial cue condition)
• They hypothesised that there would be activity in the superior parietal region and the temporoparietal junction, and also predominantly in the right hemisphere
• This hypothesis was based on the fact these areas had a previously established role in shifting attention
• The results supported the hypothesis, and they found there was brain activity in the following regions:

Superior colliculous

Pulvinar

Temporal parietal junction

Superior parietal lobe

Frontal eye field

Question 9

What were the hypothesis and results of Fan et al’s study regarding EXECUTIVE attention

Answer 9

• Executive attention was measured by the performance in the task when the arrorws were congruent in direction, compared to the performance in the task when the arrows were incongruent in direction (the conflict effect)
• Based on previous research they hypothesised that there would be activity present in the anterior cingulate cortex as well as the prefrontal cortex
• They found that there was activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the prefrontal cortex.
• They also found activity in other aareas that werent hypothesised such as the posterior region

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Question 10

What is a limitation of fMRI research such as Fan et als study

Answer 10

fMRI research is correlational in nature, therefore it cannot show the cause