Ch 22 - Attention and Consciousness

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Evolutionarily, As ___ increase, so does the problem of selection of info and of behavior

sensory and motor capacities

define attention

Selective awareness of a part of the environment

define consciousness

level of responsiveness of mind to impressions made by senses

(Awareness and Awareness of awareness)

the most evolved organizer within consciousness is

language

attention is (top-down/bottom/up)

top down

consciousness is (top-down/bottom-up)

bottom up

___ is concept driven, ___ is data driven

attention, consciousness

what kind of processing selects information from a specific part of sensory world – takes time

top down

what kind of processing summarizes info about individual and environment, not selective

bottom up

___ gives the “gist” of the world, ___ zooms in on specifics

consciousness, attention

who described attention as "Taking possession of one’s train of thought”?

william james

what are the two types of processing within attention?

automatic processing and conscious processing

describe automatic attention processing

involuntary, without awareness. does not interfere with concurrent processes.

describe conscious attention processing

controlled, effortful, attentive, conscious. requires consciousness and focused attention.

which type of attention processing can be innate property of sensory info or the result of training?

automatic processing

stopping at a stoplight is an example of ___ attention processing, while looking for a street is an example of ___ attention processing

automatic, conscious

how do you test for differences between automatic and conscious attention?

visual search tasks

serial search tasks test (what type of processing)

automatic processing

conjunction search tasks test (what type of processing)

conscious processing

conjunction search is a ___ process

serial

what is feature search?

scanning for specific features that are biologically significant.

what is conjunction search?

scanning for a particular combination of features

___ search is automatic, ___ search requires focused attention

feature, conjunction

what is feature binding?

how attention glues together different features to form a unitary object (ex features make up a face)

(happy/sad) faces are found faster on feature-search task, even when upside down

sad

Visual displays in which participants must detect happy or sad faces

feature-search demonstration

what are the two types of attention?

divided and selectiv

multitasking involves the

prefrontal cortex

•Limited capacity that must be allocated to different activities

divided attention

who examined monkey VC neurons’ responsiveness to lines of different orientation?

spitzer and desimone

when spitzer and desimone examined monkey VC neurons’ responsiveness to lines of different orientation, they found that

information processing in the visual system differed depending on the amount of effort. also, the two types of attention rely on different processes

why is divided attention not always efficient?

bottleneck in processing

performance on each task ___ when attention is divided

suffers

Attending to either auditory or visual input selectively activates

either auditory or visual cortex, but not PFC

dividing attention to focus simultaneously on both auditory and visual info, activates the

DL PFC

___ activated during the bimodal divided-attention condition compared with the bimodal passive condition

PFC

what are petersen and poser’s 3 central points to attentional network theory?

1. attentional system is distinct from the sensory networks that process information

2. attention is not a single process, but a connection of areas distributed throughout the brain

   1. brain regions form three different networks supporting attention

what are the three networks of attention?

alerting, orienting, and executive

locus coeruleus, frontal, and parietal cortex make up what attention network? what neurotransmitter?

alerting, norepinephrine

superior parietal, temporal parietal junction, frontal eye fields superior colliculus, and pulvinar make up what attention network? what neurotransmitter?

orienting, acetylcholine

anterior cingulate, anterior insula, and basal ganglia make up what attention network? what neurotransmitter?

executive, dopamine

what are two networks involved in the orienting network?

dorsal and ventral attentional streams

what does the alerting attention network do?

rapid stimulus detection

what is the general flow of info for the alerting attention network?

locus coeruleus (within RAS within midbrain) → PFC and PPC

where is the reticular activating system? (generally)

within the midbrain

what system is locus coeruleus part of

the reticular activating system

what does the orienting network do?

selects a sensory modality or a spatial location to attend to

what does the executive control system do?

fronto-parietal for transient attention

cingulate-insular-opercular for sustained attention

what are the dual networks for the executive control network?

frontal-parietal executive control system

cingulate-insular-opercular system

the ___ attentional network is for top-down visuospatial tasks

dorsal

the ___ attentional network synchronizes (re)orienting-system activity with incoming bottom-up sensory input

ventral

temporoparietal junction and ventral frontal cortex are included in what network?

ventral attentional network (bottom-up reorienting): 

frontal eye fields and intraparietal sulcus/superior parietal lobe are included in what network?

dorsal attentional network (top-down visuospatial)

the ___ executive control system operates moment to moment

frontoparietal

the ___ executive control system shows sustained activity during task performance

cingulate-insular-opercular

___ network activity may be associated with task instructions that are transient at the beginning of a new task

dorsolateral PFC

___ network is active at the beginning of a task, ___ remains active throughout the task

frontoparietal network, anterior cingulate/cingulate-insular-opercular)

Activity in areas within a network (is/is not) highly correlated; activity (is/is not) correlated between the two networks

Activity in areas within a network is highly correlated; activity is not correlated between the two networks

aging and ADHD are conditions that affect what attention network?

alerting

Autism, PTSD, and neglect are conditions that affect what attention network?

orienting

anxiety disorders, depression OCD, personality disorder, schizophrenia, and substance abuse are are conditions that affect what attention network?

executive

Meditation training to increase focus and attention altered ___-matter connections associated with the ___.

white matter, anterior cingulate cortex

what is inattentional blindness?

Failure to notice something during the performance of another task

what is change blindness?

•Failure to detect changes in the presence, identity, or location of objects in scenes (happens when people do not expect changes)

what is attentional blink?

•Failure to detect a second stimulus if it is presented within 500 ms of the first

the gorilla basketball video (lol) is a way to experience what attention-related phenomenon?

inattentional blindness

person changes while occluded (like person carrying a board between) and other person doesn’t notice different person

change blindness

consciousness is considered a collection of processes, namely… (4)

arousal, perception, attention, and working memory

___ varies across the lifespan and varies across the day

consciousness

define arousal

waking up the brain by modulatory systems

define perception

detection and binding of sensory features

___ are considered prerequisites to consciousness

reflexes

how are the ventral and dorsal streams involved: in baseball, baseball hitting a ball before conscious awareness of seeing the ball

dorsal stream: the reflex to hit the ball

ventral: the awareness of the ball

which stream of processing is most related to reflexes?

dorsal

what is the claustrum?

It sends and receives connections from almost all cortical regions. sometimes thought to be related to consciousness.

Bilateral region of the ___ lobe that is necessary for consciousness, but no necessary area in the frontal lobe

parietal

ventral vs dorsal visual systems

ventral: recognizing objects

dorsal: guides movement

which visual stream is involved in consciousness?

ventral (object recognition)

(dorsal stream is NOT involved in consciousness)