Abstract
In the last 30 years, an extensive and detailed understanding has emerged of the mechanisms that permit an observer to perceive selectively only those aspects of a scene that are relevant to the task at hand. Much of the foundation of this knowledge is behavioral, but increasingly evidence about the brain mechanisms of attention has accumulated from neuropsychological analysis of brain-damaged patients, from single cell recordings taken in awake, behaving monkeys, and from functional neuroimaging (PET and fMRI) in behaving human subjects. In the sections that follow, I will briefly summarize some of this work.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Helmholtz, H. von (1925). Treatise on Physiological Optics (Vol 3). (3rd ed., Vol. III, J. P. C. Southhall, Ed. & Trans.). Washington, DC: The Optical Society of America. (Original work published 1866)
Yantis, S. (1998). Control of visual attention. In H. Pashler (Ed.), Attention(pp. 223–256). London: Psychology Press.
Yantis, S. (2000). Stimulus-driven and goal-directed aspects of attentional control. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.), Attention and Performance XVIII. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Eriksen, C. W., & Hoffman, J. E. (1972). Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays. Perception & Psychophysics, 12, 201–204.
LaBerge, D. (1983). The spatial extent of attention to letters and words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 371–379.
Downing, C. J., & Pinker, S. (1985). The spatial structure of visual attention. In M. Posner & O. Martin (Eds.), Attention and performance XI (pp. 171–187). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bahcall, D. O., & Kowler, E. (1998). Attention interference at small spatial separations. Vision Research, 39, 71–86.
Treisman, A., & Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97–136.
Wolfe, J. M. (1994). Guided search 2.0: A revised model of visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 202–238.
Kahneman, D, Henik, A. (1981). Perceptual organization and attention. In M. Kubovy & J.R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Perceptual Organization (pp. 181–211). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Duncan, J. (1984). Selective attention and the organization of visual information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 501–517.
Egly, R., Driver, J., & Rafal, R. (1994). Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: Evidence from normal and parietal lesion subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 161–177.
Moore, C., Yantis, S., & Vaughan, B. (1998). Object-based visual selection: Evidence from perceptual completion. Psychological Science, 9, 104–110.
Behrmann, M., Zemel, R. S., & Mozer, M. C. (1998). Object-based attention and occlusion: Evidence from normal participants and a computational model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 1011–1036.
Moran, J., & Desimone, R. (1985). Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex. Science, 229, 782–784.
Motter, B. C. (1993). Focal attention produces spatially selective processing in visual cortical areas V1, V2, and V4 in the presence of competing stimuli. Journal of Neuroscience, 70,909–919.
Motter, B. C. (1994). Neural correlates of feature selective memory and pop-out in extrastriate area V4. Journal of Neuroscience, 14,2190–2199.
Treue, S., & Maunsell, J. H. R. (1996). Attentional modulation of visual motion processing in cortical areas MT and MST. Nature, 382, 539–541.
McAdams, C.J. & Maunsell, J.H.R. (1999). Effects of attention on orientation-tuning functions of single neurons in macaque cortical area V4. Journal of Neuroscience, 19, 431–441.
Chelazzi, L, Miller, E. K., Duncan, J., & Desimone, R. (1993). A neural basis for visual search in inferior temporal cortex. Nature, 363, 345–347.
Chelazzi, L., Duncan, J., Miller, E.K., & Desimone, R. (1998). Responses of neurons in inferior temporal cortex during memory-guided visual search. Journal of Neurophysiology, 80, 2918–2940.
Reynolds, J.H., Chelazzi, L., & Desimone, R. (1999) Competitive mechanisms subserve attention in macaque areas V2 and V4. Journal of Neuroscience, 19, 1736–1753.
Kastner, S., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2000). Mechanisms of visual attention in the human cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 315–341.
Corbetta, M., Miezin, F., Dobmeyer, S., Shulman, G. L., & Petersen, S. E. (1991). Selective and divided attention during visual discriminations of shape, color, and speed: Functional anatomy by positron emission tomography. Journal of Neuroscience, 77,2383–2402.
Somers, D.C., Dale, A.M., Seiffert, A.E., & Tootell, R.B.H. (1999). Functional MRI reveals spatially specific attentional modulation in human primary visual cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 96, 1663–1668.
Brefczynski, J. A., & DeYoe, E. A. (1999). A physiological correlate of the ’spotlight’ of attention. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 370–374.
Tootell, R.B.H., Hadjikhani, N., Hall, E. K., Marrett, S., Vanduffe, W., Vaughan, J.T., & Dale, A. (1998). The retinotopy of visual spatial attention. Neuron, 21, 1409–1422.
Heinze, H. J., Mangun, G. R., et al. (1994). Combined temporal and spatial imaging of brain activity during visual selection attention in humans. Nature, 372, 543–546.
Kastner, S., De Weerd, P., Desimone, R., & Ungerleider, L. G. (1998). Mechanisms of directed attention in the human extrastriate cortex as revealed by functional MRI. Science, 282, 108–111.
O’Craven, K. M., Rosen, B. R., Kwong, K. K., Triesman, A., & Savoy, R. L. (1997). Voluntary attention modulates fMRI activity in human MT/MST. Neuron, 18, 591–598.
Haxby, J. V., Horwitz, B., Ungerleider, L. G., Maisog, J. M., Pietrini, P., & Grady, C. L. (1994). The functional organization of human extrastriate cortex: A PET-rCBF study of selective attention to faces and locations. Journal ofNeuroscience, 14, 6336– 6353.
Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. (1997). The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 4302–4311.
Ungerleider, L. G., & Mishkin, M. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In J. Ingle, M. A. Goodale, & R. J. W. (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior (pp. 549–586). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Felleman, D. J., & Van Essen, D. C. (1991). Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1, 1–47.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention.Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 193–222.
Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Courtney, S. M., Ungerleider, L. G., Keil, K., & Haxby, J. V. (1996). Object and spatial working memory activate separate neural systems in human cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 6, 39–49.
Courtney, S. M., Ungerleider, L. G., Keil, K., & Haxby, J. V. (1997). Transient and sustained activity in a distributed neural system for human working memory. Nature, 386, 608–611.
D’Esposito, M., Detre, J. A. et al. (1995). The neural basis of the central executive system of working memory. Nature, 378, 279–281.
Fuster, J. (1980). The prefrontal cortex. New York: Raven Press.
Jonides, J., Smith, E. E., Koeppe, R. A., Awh, E. S., Minoshima, S., & Minton, M. A. (1993). Spatial working memory in humans as revealed by PET. Nature, 363, 623– 625.
Miller, E. K. (1999). The prefrontal cortex: Complex neural properties for complex behavior. Neuron, 22, 15–17.
Miller, E.K. (2000). The neural basis of top-down control of visual attention in the prefrontal cortex. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.). Attention and Performance XVIII. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Smith E. E., & Jonides, J. (1997). Working memory: A view from neuroimaging. Cognitive Psychology, 33, 5–42.
Rainer, G., Asaad, W. F., & Miller, E. K. (1998). Selective representation of relevant information by neurons in the primate prefrontal cortex. Nature, 393, 577–579.
Bushnell, M.C., Goldberg, M. E., & Robinson, D. L. (1981). Behavioral enhancement of visual responses in monkey cerebral cortex. I. Modulation in posterior parietal cortex related to selective visual attention. Journal of Neurophysiology, 46, 755–771.
Corbetta, M., Miezin, F., Shulman, G., & Petersen, S. E. (1993). A PET study of visuospatial attention. Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 1202–1226.
Corbetta, M., Kincade, J. M., Ollinger, J. M., McAvoy, M. P., & Shulman, G. L. (2000). Voluntary orienting is dissociated from target detection in human posterior parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 292–297.
Awh, E., Jonides, J., & Reuter-Lorenz, P.A. (1998). Rehearsal in spatial working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 780–790.
Awh, E., & Jonides, J. (1998). Spatial working memory and spatial selective attention. In R. Parasuraman (Ed.), The Attentive Brain (pp. 353–380). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Awh, E., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E., Buxton, R.B., Frank, L.R., Love, T., Wong, E.C., & Gmeindl, L. (in press). Rehearsal in spatial working memory: Evidence from neuroimaging. Psychological Science, 10,433-437.
Constantinidis, C., & Steinmetz, M.A. (1996). Neuronal activity in posterior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory task. Journal of Neurophysiology, 76, 1352–1355.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yantis, S. (2002). Neural Mechanisms of Attentional Control. In: Cantoni, V., Marinaro, M., Petrosino, A. (eds) Visual Attention Mechanisms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0111-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0111-4_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-4928-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0111-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive