Attention

Question 1

What is the default mode network?

Answer 1

• Active when awake but not engaged in a cognitive task
• posterior cingulate cortex
• medial prefrontal cortex
• temporoparietal junction

Question 2

What is the central executive network?

Answer 2

• Active when awake and engaged in a cognitive task
• frontoparietal attention regions
• Intraparietal sulcus
• ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Question 3

What is attention?

Answer 3

The taking possession of the mind, in a clear and vivid form, of one out of many possible objects or trains of thought. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to better process others.

Question 4

What is alertness?

Answer 4

A state in which the brain actively processes sensory information regulated by the reticular activation network in the brainstem

Question 5

What is arousal?

Answer 5

A state in which there is high intensity of emotions.

Question 6

What is salience?

Answer 6

A property of stimulants in the outside work. Something that is salient attracts our attention.

Question 7

What is awareness?

Answer 7

Can be used interchangeably with conciousness.

Question 8

How is attention related to conciousness?

Answer 8

• only attended things reach the threshold for consciousness
• consciousness requires the allocation of neural resources based on the needs of the moment
• The greater the perceptual load the more attention has to be paid in order to achieve conscious processing

Question 9

What is endogenous attention?

Answer 9

Top down attention: resources are allocated to the processing of a particular object or train of thought because of prior knowledge, willful planning or something else related to current behavioral goals. The selection of what to pay attention to is internal. Facilitates processing from 300ms to a few seconds.

Question 10

What is exogenous attention?

Answer 10

Bottom up attention: Triggered by ‘random’ stimuli that draw the attention automatically. Stimuli that is salient appears in receptive fields and activates neurons. Improved processing of about 75ms to a few hundred milliseconds. After 400ms inhibition of return is triggered.

Question 11

What is inhibition of return?

Answer 11

Whenever exogenous attention is triggered but there is no important stimuli that needs to be processed inhibition of return will mean that you will pay less attention to that area so as not to draw your attention for no reason. A loud bang in one area might draw your attention once or twice but because of inhibition of return you will soon acclimatize to that noise.

Question 12

What is overt attention?

Answer 12

Orienting the head and eyes to a stimulus which aligns auditory and visual information and improves processing of the stimulus

Question 13

What is covert attention?

Answer 13

something like fixating your gaze on one part of the visual field or listening to one particular sound more than others. Information in the attended location is better reported.

Question 14

What is supramodal attention?

Answer 14

The spreading of attention. Stimuli in one modality concurrently stimulates another modality such as a sound cue stimulating visual perception.

Question 15

What are the areas of the brain that control attenion?

Answer 15

Intraparietal area, Frontal eye fields, Pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, and the superior colliculi.

Question 16

What is Hemispacial neglect syndrome?

Answer 16

When damage occurs to the inferior parietal lobe humans can experience loss of ability to have attention to things in the left field of vision. Some patients have reported being able to see things in the left hemisphere if they are particularly salient.

Question 17

What is the normal function of the frontal eye fields?

Answer 17

The FEF normal function is to generate eye saccades to areas in space that warrant attention. Electrical stimulation to the FEF results in increased activity in the visual cortex.

Question 18

What are possible results to damage of the frontal eye fields?

Answer 18

Possible results include inability to initiate eye movement to target areas of attention, to direct attention at all the the side that has been damaged, and task switching or ignoring relevant information.

Question 19

What connects the Superior colliculi to the pariatal cortex?

Answer 19

The pulvinar nucleus in the thalamus.

Question 20

What is the Sprague affect?

Answer 20

A lesion to the left superior colliculus can compensate for Hemispacial neglect caused by a lesion to the right inferior parietal lobe.

Question 21

How do areas of the brain activated by endo vs exogenous attention relate to each other spatially?

Answer 21

Both spatial and non spatial endogenous attention are more dorsal when compared to areas activated by exogenous attention which are more ventral. Both regions are in the dorsal parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Question 22

What area of the brain is activated when sustained attention is paid to one area of the visual field?

Answer 22

The extrastriate cortex.

Question 23

What effects can microstimulation of the FEF cause?

Answer 23

Improved performance in attention tasks and increased activity in V4.

Question 24

What is Balint syndrome?

Answer 24

Damage to dorsal posterior parietal and lateral occipital cortex. Patients cannot attend two different stimuli at once regardless of location.

Question 25

What are ways that things things can be more or less salient?

Answer 25

Physical characteristics (loud, bright large), association with a goal, novelty, emotionality, motivational.

Question 26

What is mindfulness?

Answer 26

The practice of paying attention more clearly to things happening around you without allowing factors such as motivation, goals or other aspects of saliency to determine what you pay attention to.

Question 27

What is the wheel of awareness?

Answer 27

There is a circle. In the center of the circle is your awareness while on the edge of the circle are your senses. Your attention is a line that connects the center to the edges. You can learn to point that line where ever you need to.