+ Selective Attention NBE-E5700 Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience Anna Äimälä

+ Attention! Focus on one train of thought from several possible ones, concentration of consciousness Selective attention How is the brain able to filter certain information and not get distracted by others? Amount of stimuli is larger than what we can attend to Split attention, shifting vs sustaining attention Choosing between alternatives, shifting focus Involuntary attention: how the unattended is processed

+ Internal models guide attention Schemas affect how we see the world Top-down models Bottom-up models Guiding eye movements when collecting visual information When viewing faces, we focus on the mouth and eyes

+ Selective attention test:

+ Selective attention Behavioral and neuroimaging studies, dichotic listening studies Law of prior entry, attentional spotlight Early selection: unattended inputs processed to a limited degree Top-down inputs can modulate stimulus processing quickly Late selection: unattended inputs processed to semantic level High order brain areas respond to unattended stimuli fMRI studies: modulation of hemodynamic activity in secondary but not in primary sensory areas

+ Gain-enhancement model Augmenting relevant and suppressing irrelevant stimuli Retuning receptive fields Spectrotemporal receptive fields modulated Studies in primary auditory cortex, does it apply to other senses? Supports early selection model How does it work in humans? Retuning when stimuli are partially overlapping in the same receptive fields

+ Involuntary attention Brain keeps guard on possibly significant events Auditory modality Cortical neurons adapt Notice unattended sounds that are different Emotionally significant stimuli

+ Where does this happen? Sensory information: dorsal posterior parietal (intraparietal sulcus) and frontal cortex, occipital areas (fusifrom) Also the location of attention: parietal and frontal regions Dorsal frontoparietal network: visuospatial attention

+ Shifting attention Dorsolateral prefrontal cortical & posterior parietal areas Superior areas in posterior parietal cortex: transitions Inferior areas: maintaining focus Basal ganglia, thalamus level Direct pathway releases inhibition, indirect pathway inhibits competing inputs yg8KRaJVOw1CZhvNNVI6Q_m.png

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+ Damaging attention Psychological Schizophrenia Depression: lack of attention ADHD Parkinson: Shifting attention Lesions: Damage to right parietal lobe: Unilateral neglect syndrome Damage to temporo-parietal junction: Agnosia and prosopagnosia how.com/neuroscience/the-upper-motor-neurons-motor-systems-part-2/

+ Thank you! Any questions? Deficits in attention can make everyday activities difficult or impossible Attention affects memory and thus shaping of what we are Spatial rehearsal depends on spatial attention Still a central research question in cognitive neuroscience