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Journal of Integrative Neuroscience Mar 2021This article describes neural models of attention. Since attention is not a disembodied process, the article explains how brain processes of consciousness, learning,... (Review)
Review
This article describes neural models of attention. Since attention is not a disembodied process, the article explains how brain processes of consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony interact. These processes show how attention plays a critical role in dynamically stabilizing perceptual and cognitive learning throughout our lives. Classical concepts of object and spatial attention are replaced by mechanistically precise processes of prototype, boundary, and surface attention. Adaptive resonances trigger learning of bottom-up recognition categories and top-down expectations that help to classify our experiences, and focus prototype attention upon the patterns of critical features that predict behavioral success. These feature-category resonances also maintain the stability of these learned memories. Different types of resonances induce functionally distinct conscious experiences during seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing that are described and explained, along with their different attentional and anatomical correlates within different parts of the cerebral cortex. All parts of the cerebral cortex are organized into layered circuits. Laminar computing models show how attention is embodied within a canonical laminar neocortical circuit design that integrates bottom-up filtering, horizontal grouping, and top-down attentive matching. Spatial and motor processes obey matching and learning laws that are computationally complementary to those obeyed by perceptual and cognitive processes. Their laws adapt to bodily changes throughout life, and do not support attention or conscious states.
Topics: Attention; Brain; Cognition; Consciousness; Humans; Learning; Models, Theoretical
PubMed: 33834707
DOI: 10.31083/j.jin.2021.01.406 -
The Neuroscientist : a Review Journal... Apr 2014The idea of two separate attention networks in the human brain for the voluntary deployment of attention and the reorientation to unexpected events, respectively, has... (Review)
Review
The idea of two separate attention networks in the human brain for the voluntary deployment of attention and the reorientation to unexpected events, respectively, has inspired an enormous amount of research over the past years. In this review, we will reconcile these theoretical ideas on the dorsal and ventral attentional system with recent empirical findings from human neuroimaging experiments and studies in stroke patients. We will highlight how novel methods-such as the analysis of effective connectivity or the combination of neurostimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging-have contributed to our understanding of the functionality and interaction of the two systems. We conclude that neither of the two networks controls attentional processes in isolation and that the flexible interaction between both systems enables the dynamic control of attention in relation to top-down goals and bottom-up sensory stimulation. We discuss which brain regions potentially govern this interaction according to current task demands.
Topics: Animals; Attention; Brain; Humans; Neural Pathways
PubMed: 23835449
DOI: 10.1177/1073858413494269 -
European Journal of Pharmacology Sep 2018Early philosophers and psychologists defined and began to describe attention. Beginning in the 1950's, numerous models of attention were developed. This corresponded... (Review)
Review
Early philosophers and psychologists defined and began to describe attention. Beginning in the 1950's, numerous models of attention were developed. This corresponded with an increased understanding of pharmacological approaches to manipulate neurotransmitter systems. The present review focuses on the knowledge that has been gained about these neurotransmitter systems with respect to attentional processing, with emphasis on the functions mediated within the medial prefrontal cortex. Additionally, the use of pharmacotherapies to treat psychiatric conditions characterized by attentional dysfunction are discussed. Future directions include developing a more comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying attentional processing and novel pharmacotherapeutic targets for conditions characterized by aberrant attentional processing.
Topics: Animals; Attention; Humans; Neuropharmacology
PubMed: 30092180
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2018.08.008 -
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine Mar 2019The human capability to attend has been both considered as easy and as impossible to understand by philosophers and scientists through the centuries. Much has been... (Review)
Review
The human capability to attend has been both considered as easy and as impossible to understand by philosophers and scientists through the centuries. Much has been written by brain, cognitive, and philosophical scientists trying to explain attention as it applies to sensory and reasoning processes, let alone consciousness. It has been only in the last few decades that computational scientists have entered the picture adding a new language with which to express attentional behavior and function. This new perspective has produced some progress to the centuries-old goal, but there is still far to go. Although a central belief in many scientific disciplines has been to seek a unifying explanatory principle for natural observations, it may be that we need to put this aside as it applies to attention and accept the fact that attention is really an integrated set of mechanisms, too messy to cleanly and parsimoniously express with a single principle. These mechanisms are claimed to be critical to enable functional generalization of brain processes and thus an integrative perspective is important. Here we present first steps towards a theoretical and algorithmic view on how the many different attentional mechanisms may be deployed, coordinated, synchronized, and effectively utilized. A hierarchy of dynamically defined closed-loop control processes is proposed, each with its own optimization objective, which is extensible to multiple layers. Although mostly speculative, simulation and experimental work support important components.
Topics: Attention; Executive Function; Humans; Task Performance and Analysis; Visual Perception
PubMed: 30923480
DOI: No ID Found -
Psychological Science Jun 2016How do people get attention to operate at peak efficiency in high-pressure situations? We tested the hypothesis that the general mechanism that allows this is the...
How do people get attention to operate at peak efficiency in high-pressure situations? We tested the hypothesis that the general mechanism that allows this is the maintenance of multiple target representations in working and long-term memory. We recorded subjects' event-related potentials (ERPs) indexing the working memory and long-term memory representations used to control attention while performing visual search. We found that subjects used both types of memories to control attention when they performed the visual search task with a large reward at stake, or when they were cued to respond as fast as possible. However, under normal circumstances, one type of target memory was sufficient for slower task performance. The use of multiple types of memory representations appears to provide converging top-down control of attention, allowing people to step on the attentional accelerator in a variety of high-pressure situations.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Attention; Evoked Potentials; Female; Humans; Male; Memory, Long-Term; Memory, Short-Term; Psychomotor Performance; Young Adult
PubMed: 27056975
DOI: 10.1177/0956797616636416 -
Arquivos de Neuro-psiquiatria May 2022Sleep is a special physiological state that occurs cyclically. The probable role of sleep in our organic functions remains to be explored to clarify the impact of sleep...
BACKGROUND
Sleep is a special physiological state that occurs cyclically. The probable role of sleep in our organic functions remains to be explored to clarify the impact of sleep on brain functions. Sleep deprivation is known to affect all parts of the brain separately and independently, but further research is needed on the impact of sleep disorders on attention, particularly the specific types of attention that are most affected, and whether there is such a correlation.
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a systematic review of the possible correlation between sleep disorders and attentional performance.
METHODS
A systematic review and search at PubMed, SciELO, and Cochrane scientific databases for articles published in the last 10 years was carried out using the following keywords: sleep, attention, and attentional performance. Inclusion criteria were the use of attention tests and sleep disorders. Of the 1398 articles found, 15 were selected and included in this review.
RESULTS
The number of publications evaluating sleep and sleep disorders has increased, but is still limited. Of all the functions normally assessed, patients with sleep disorders perform worse on attention tasks, especially with sustained attention. However, these data require further investigation due to the complexity and diversity of the disorders, the small sample size of the included studies, and the fact that few studies used standardized tests.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that the correlation between sleep and attention is strong but limited. Few studies are devoted exclusively to the extent to which sleep disorders interferes with attention.
Topics: Attention; Brain; Humans; Sleep; Sleep Wake Disorders
PubMed: 35476076
DOI: 10.1590/0004-282X-ANP-2021-0182 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Apr 2017Recent work shows that models based on functional connectivity in large-scale brain networks can predict individuals' attentional abilities. While being some of the... (Review)
Review
Recent work shows that models based on functional connectivity in large-scale brain networks can predict individuals' attentional abilities. While being some of the first generalizable neuromarkers of cognitive function, these models also inform our basic understanding of attention, providing empirical evidence that: (i) attention is a network property of brain computation; (ii) the functional architecture that underlies attention can be measured while people are not engaged in any explicit task; and (iii) this architecture supports a general attentional ability that is common to several laboratory-based tasks and is impaired in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Looking ahead, connectivity-based predictive models of attention and other cognitive abilities and behaviors may potentially improve the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of clinical dysfunction.
Topics: Attention; Brain; Cognition; Connectome; Humans; Models, Neurological; Nerve Net
PubMed: 28238605
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.01.011 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... May 2018Recent research has expanded the list of factors that control spatial attention. Beside current goals and perceptual salience, statistical learning, reward, motivation... (Review)
Review
Recent research has expanded the list of factors that control spatial attention. Beside current goals and perceptual salience, statistical learning, reward, motivation and emotion also affect attention. But do these various factors influence spatial attention in the same manner, as suggested by the integrated framework of attention, or do they target different aspects of spatial attention? Here I present evidence that the control of attention may be implemented in two ways. Whereas current goals typically modulate where in space attention is prioritized, search habits affect how one moves attention in space. Using the location probability learning paradigm, I show that a search habit forms when people frequently find a visual search target in one region of space. Attentional cuing by probability learning differs from that by current goals. Probability cuing is implicit and persists long after the probability cue is no longer valid. Whereas explicit goal-driven attention codes space in an environment-centered reference frame, probability cuing is viewer-centered and is insensitive to secondary working memory load and aging. I propose a multi-level framework that separates the source of attentional control from its implementation. Similar to the integrated framework, the multi-level framework considers current goals, perceptual salience, and selection history as major sources of attentional control. However, these factors are implemented in two ways, controlling where spatial attention is allocated and how one shifts attention in space.
Topics: Attention; Goals; Humans; Motivation; Probability Learning; Space Perception; Visual Perception
PubMed: 28734549
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.06.018 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Dec 2020From playing basketball to ordering at a food counter, we frequently and effortlessly coordinate our attention with others towards a common focus: we look at the ball,... (Review)
Review
From playing basketball to ordering at a food counter, we frequently and effortlessly coordinate our attention with others towards a common focus: we look at the ball, or point at a piece of cake. This non-verbal coordination of attention plays a fundamental role in our social lives: it ensures that we refer to the same object, develop a shared language, understand each other's mental states, and coordinate our actions. Models of joint attention generally attribute this accomplishment to gaze coordination. But are visual attentional mechanisms sufficient to achieve joint attention, in all cases? Besides cases where visual information is missing, we show how combining it with other senses can be helpful, and even necessary to certain uses of joint attention. We explain the two ways in which non-visual cues contribute to joint attention: either as enhancers, when they complement gaze and pointing gestures in order to coordinate joint attention on visible objects, or as modality pointers, when joint attention needs to be shifted away from the whole object to one of its properties, say weight or texture. This multisensory approach to joint attention has important implications for social robotics, clinical diagnostics, pedagogy and theoretical debates on the construction of a shared world.
Topics: Attention; Cues; Gestures; Humans; Perception; Social Interaction
PubMed: 32666194
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-020-01766-z -
Current Opinion in Psychology Oct 2019Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is characteristically perceived as primarily being a disorder of episodic memory, with prominent attentional impairments more typically being... (Review)
Review
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is characteristically perceived as primarily being a disorder of episodic memory, with prominent attentional impairments more typically being associated with other neurodegenerative conditions, such as Dementia with Lewy Bodies. However, attention is also affected early on in Alzheimer's, particularly in individuals with young onset and atypical syndromes. In addition, some initial symptoms that are apparently due to episodic memory loss may be secondary to failures of attentional processes. This review delineates the various attentional impairments that can be observed in patients with AD, and addresses them through the conceptual framework of attention proposed by Posner and Petersen. It also describes how current knowledge of the development of AD has influenced our understanding of how these deficits arise. Finally, there is a brief summary of the effects of current AD treatments on attentional processes, and how future pharmacological approaches might better target these deficits.
Topics: Adrenergic Neurons; Alzheimer Disease; Arousal; Attention; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neural Pathways
PubMed: 30496975
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.11.002