Attention

Question 1

alertness and arousal

Answer 1

the most basic levels of attention

Question 2

vigilance

Answer 2

the ability to maintain alertness continuously over time

Question 3

selective attention

Answer 3

the selection of information essential to a task

mental effort required

focusing and concentrating

cocktail party effect

Question 4

divided attention

Answer 4

spit attention across tasks

multitasking

no concensus

prefrontal regions? - increased activity, greater demands on brain. ie/ talking on phone while driving

Question 5

main regions in the brain involved with attention

Answer 5

superior colliculus
thalamus (LGN and Pulvinar)
Anterior cingulate cortex
Parietal cortex

Frontal cortex
Reticular activating system (RAS)

Question 6

reticular activating system

Answer 6

responsible for overall arousal and sleep-wake cycles

ventral and dorsal substream

damage can result in coma

Question 7

ventral subsystem of RAS

Answer 7

projects to the cortex via the basal forebrain

a branch from the raphe nucleus relies on serotonin

a branch from the locus coeruleus relies on noepinephrine

Question 8

dorsal subsystem of RAS

Answer 8

projects to the cortex via the thalamus

relies of ACh

Question 9

vigilance and sustained attention

Answer 9

needs both the cholinergic and noradrenergic systems

more effort needed to sustain attention requires more ach

the noradrenergic system prepares the brain to receive info - focus on certain area that receive info first

thalamus interfaces between arousal and sustained attention

cortical regions (especially right hemisphere) involved
- activation of right hemisphere seen in vigilance tasks

Question 10

cocktail party effect

Answer 10

choosing what we are wanting to listen to and then ignoring the rest

Question 11

bottom-up attention selection

Answer 11

some intrinsic aspect of the stimulus itself causes it to be attended

something in the enviroment

developed first as it is important for survival

ie/ a loud sound, plate dropping and breaking

Question 12

top-down attentional selection

Answer 12

the person determines how to direct his or her attention

ie/ you might direct your attention to a particular person

Question 13

stimulus-driven/involuntary attention

Answer 13

mediated by subcortical areas (particularly the superior colliculus)

Question 14

goal driven/ voluntary attention

Answer 14

mediated by cortical areas (parietal and frontal corticies)

Question 15

early selection viewpoint

Answer 15

selection occurs at an early stage of processing, before items are identified

Question 16

late selection viewpoint

Answer 16

selection occurs only after sensory processing is complete and items have been identified and categorized

Question 17

automatic orienting in the superior colliculus

Answer 17

plays a role in the localization of visual stimuli, the control of saccades, and stimulus driven attention shifts to stimuli in visual space

good for attentional processing and liking eye movements
- has a set of neurons that respond quickly to visual stimuli
- has a retinotopic map of the contralateral side of space
- has a different set of neurons sensitive to both sensory characteristics and to orienting movement

Question 18

superior colliculus lesions

Answer 18

disrupts attentional shift - general slowing of responses, possibly because of an impaired ability to localize stimuli

Question 19

inferior colliculus

Answer 19

role in auditory info

Question 20

Lateral geniculate nucleus

Answer 20

plays gate keeper to the cortex

depending of the focus of attention is act to
- enhance relevant info
- surpress irrelevant info

Question 21

pulvinar

Answer 21

aids in regulating info transmission between cortical regions that are processing info relevant to attention

aids in synchronizing activity between those brain regions

filtering: greater activation of the pulvinar when identifying small targets surrounded by distractors as opposed to large targets with no distractors

Question 22

selective attention and the parietal lobe

Answer 22

involved in overall allocation of attentional resources to a particular stimulus or task

plays a role in selecting info in a more precise manner after the early gating of sensory information by the thalamus

types of attentional selection (top-down/bottom-up)

Question 23

intraparietal sulcus

Answer 23

where these two streams of info are thought to be integrated

Question 24

superior parietal lobe

Answer 24

involved in top-down influences on attention directed by the person’s goals or desires rather than stimuli in the environment

Question 25

inferior parietal lobe of right hemisphere

Answer 25

more involved in more bottom-up aspects of attentional control

Question 26

(preattentive/parallel search)

Answer 26

targets defined by only one feature will "pop out" type of feature integration theory

Question 27

attentive/ serial search

Answer 27

targets defined by feature combinations requires attention to "glue" features together

Question 28

feature integration theory

Answer 28

attention allows features of an item to be bound together basic features are detected and automatically processed and proceed in parallel across all locations

Question 29

damage to parietal regions

Answer 29

disrupts the ability to bind features together can not detect the conjunction of features, can detect a single feature

Question 30

salience maps

Answer 30

some info is processed relatively automatically (bottom-up) helps to influence where attention is directed top-down like your current goal also influences where your attention is directed salience map is constructed from this to help prioritize where attention should be directed

Question 31

feature maps

Answer 31

signal for presence of each features attention to a master map location provides access to information at that location in each of the feature maps this integrates the features possessed by the item at that location

Question 32

illusory conjunctions

Answer 32

attention is required to combine features of an object attention is also required to precisely determine the locations of object features when attention is limited, may not properly put features together in the right location

Question 33

inattentional and change blindness

Answer 33

when attention is focused at a location or on an object, it is necessarily withdrawn from other locations and object unattended objects are processed less efficiently than the object that is attended to something has to be important to you for you to pay attention; we do not remember what we do not pay attention to

Question 34

automaticity

Answer 34

skills and tasked can become automatic, requiring minimal attention to perform, freeing up attentional capacity to focus on other things multi-tasking can be possible

Question 35

anterior cingulate

Answer 35

intracranial recordings show alterations in activity just prior to and after a response neuroimaging findings suggest that these regions specifically increase their activity when response mappings are hard

Question 36

lateral prefrontal cortex

Answer 36

serve as sources for top-down attentional control, providing the abstract category or goal that should guide attention send signals to posterior brain regions that act as the sites of attentional control that are actively involved in the selection process bias processing towards particular info

Question 37

what are the three systems attention can be divided into

Answer 37

alerting orienting executive attention

Question 38

alerting

Answer 38

allows brain to maintain a tonic level of arousal and to respond to signals warning of upcoming events involves the locus coeruleus, thalamic regions, frontal and parietal regions of the cortex; linked to noepinephrine

Question 39

orienting

Answer 39

aligns attention with sensory signals and selects among multiple sensory inputs involves the superior colliculus, parietal areas and frontal eye fields; linked to Ach

Question 40

executive attentions

Answer 40

controls how attention is directed according to goals and desires involves the basal gangli, lateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate; linked to dopamine

Question 41

dorsal attention system

Answer 41

system prepares and applies goal oriented (top-down) selection of stimuli and responses composed of portions of the intraparietal cortex, superior frontal cortex and frontal eye fields

Question 42

ventral attention system

Answer 42

system detect and reorients attention to behaviourally relevant stimuli, especially when salient or unexpected composed of temproparietal cortex, inferior frontal cortex and anterior insula mainly lateralized to the right hemisphere

Question 43

executive attention deficits

Answer 43

symptoms: difficulty concentrating, increased distractability, poorer ability to divide of sustain focused attention, impaired response inhibition primarily associated with frontal cortex dysfunction typically caused by brain diseases, also injuries (such as concussions)

Question 44

spatial attention deficits

Answer 44

deficits associated with difficulty processing info at specific locations syptoms: can include neglect, impaired search, impaired attentional disengagement primarily associated with parietal cortex dysfunction typically caused by damage due to strokes, also injuries

Question 45

symptoms of ADHD

Answer 45

excessive distractibility impulsivity restlessness lack of inhibition uneven attentional span underfocusing and hyperfocusing

Question 46

hypotheses of ADHD

Answer 46

surpressed frontal lobe activity dysregulation of default mode network disruption of attentional filtering by thalams disruption of right hemisphere function underproduction of dopamine

Question 47

differences between ADHD brain and non-ADHD brain

Answer 47

slight reduction in size of the frontal lobes and basal ganglia differences are not consistant enough to provide a diagnostic test but do correlate with the symptoms frontal lobe: helps with organization, time management and decision-making basal ganglia" help to regulate moods and to control impulsive outbursts

Question 48

hemineglect

Answer 48

patients with this do not pay attention to one side of space mainly considered a spatial phenomenon the neglect of info occurs with reference to a spatial frame all types of info, regardless of modality are ignored on the neglected side of space

Question 49

manifestation of hemineglect

Answer 49

individuals do not pay attention to the side of space contralateral to their lesion symptoms: vary depending on time since brain damage - neglect- usually severe at first - over time (or if damage is mild) may only be observed under conditions of double simultaneous stimulation; referred to as extinction

Question 50

patients with right hemisphere lesionn

Answer 50

may fail to: notice items on the left side of the world - spatial neglect draw the left side of object - allocentric neglect use the left side of the body - personal neglect more prominent then left hemisphere damage - possibly that the right hemisphere has a greater role in attention

Question 51

extinction

Answer 51

awareness of object in the left visual field provided there are no objects in the right visual fields when objects are in the right visual field, other visual field becomes neglected again

Question 52

object-based neglect

Answer 52

neglect the left half of the object, regardless of the position of the stimulus in space

Question 53

when are neglected stimuli processed

Answer 53

at early stages of the visual system, so they do influence performance in subtle ways because they do not gain access to higher-order visual processing areas, they are not perceived consciously

Question 54

hemineglect theories

Answer 54

internal mental representation of the left space is lost other theories arise from competition between hemispheres - sensory stimuli on the non-neglected side of space prevents these patients from attending to the info on the neglected side. right parietal, biasing attention towards its preference the greater the imbalance ( the weaker the damaged side is) - the more attention is drawn to the preference of the intact side

Question 55

evidence of competition theory

Answer 55

patients with parietal lobe lesions have difficulty disengaging attention from the non-neglected side patients show less neglect when they "cancel items by erasing them, thereby reducing competing info on the non-neglected side

Question 56

treating hemineglect

Answer 56

using TMS or tDCS have attempted to: - down-regulate activity in the left hemisphere, up-regulate activity in the damaged right hemisphere or both other approaces use methods that orient attention and action to the left side of space top- down approaches teach patients to guide their attention with aid from a therapist of using training in a virtual reality environment many patients can recover

Question 57

traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)

Answer 57

the effects on TBI on attention depends on the location of the injury. (frontal or parietal lobe, specific area within), but can include poor concentration and lack of "mental energy" increased interference by distractors slower detection of targets during search impaired capacity of divided attention increased stroop interference reduced activation of executive attention areas attentional neglect mental slowing