A Matter of Bottom-Up or Top-Down Processes: The Role of Attention in Multisensory Integration
A Matter of Bottom-Up or Top-Down Processes: The Role of Attention in Multisensory Integration

Author: Jess Hartcher-O'Brien

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2017-07-04

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 2889451933

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The integration of information from various sensory modalities influences behaviour. It can induce behavioural benefits such as faster reaction times and enhanced detection of noisy signals but may also produce illusions, all of which have been characterized by specific neuronal signatures. Yet, while these effects of multisensory integration are largely accepted, the role of attention in this process is still the object of intense debate. On the one hand, it has been suggested that attention may guide multisensory integration in a top-down fashion by selection of specific inputs to be integrated out of the plethora of information in our environment. On the other hand, there is evidence that integration could occur in a bottom-up manner, based on temporal and spatial correlations, and outside the focus of attention. An extreme example is the multisensory enhancement of neural responses in anesthetised animals. Attention itself is not a unitary construct, and may refer to a range of different selection mechanisms. Therefore, the interplay between attention and multisensory integration can take many forms which explain, in part, the diversity of findings and the disputes in the literature. The goal of this Research Topic is to help clarify the picture by trying to answer the following questions from various perspectives: Under which circumstances does multisensory integration take place without attention?, and, When does attention determine the fate of multisensory integration?

Crossmodal Attention Applied
Crossmodal Attention Applied

Author: Charles Spence

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-09-10

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1108908241

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Cognitive neuroscientists have started to uncover the neural substrates, systems, and mechanisms enabling us to prioritize the processing of certain sensory information over other, currently less-relevant, inputs. However, there is still a large gap between the knowledge generated in the laboratory and its application to real-life problems of attention as when, for example, interface operators are multi-tasking. In this Element, laboratory studies on crossmodal attention (both behavioural/psychophysical and cognitive neuroscience) are situated within the applied context of driving. We contrast the often idiosyncratic conditions favoured by much of the laboratory research, typically using a few popular paradigms involving simplified experimental conditions, with the noisy, multisensory, real-world environments filled with complex, intrinsically-meaningful stimuli. By drawing attention to the differences between basic and applied studies in the context of driving, we highlight a number of important issues and neglected areas of research as far as the study of crossmodal attention is concerned.

Turning the Mind’s Eye Inward: The Interplay between Selective Attention and Working Memory
Turning the Mind’s Eye Inward: The Interplay between Selective Attention and Working Memory

Author: Elger Abrahamse

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2016-01-21

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 2889197212

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Historically, cognitive sciences have considered selective attention and working memory as largely separated cognitive functions. That is, selective attention as a concept is typically reserved for the processes that allow for the prioritization of specific sensory input, while working memory entails more central structures for maintaining (and operating on) temporary mental representations. However, over the last decades various observations have been reported that question such sharp distinction. Most importantly, information stored in working memory has been shown to modulate selective attention processing – and vice versa. At the theoretical level, these observations are paralleled by an increasingly dominant focus on working memory as (involving) the attended part of long-term memory, with some positions considering that working memory is equivalent to selective attention turned to long-term memory representations – or internal selective attention. This questions the existence of working memory as a dedicated cognitive function and raises the need for integrative accounts of working memory and attention. The next step will be to explore the precise implications of attentional accounts of WM for the understanding of specific aspects and characteristics of WM, such as serial order processing, its modality-specificity, its capacity limitations, its relation with executive functions, as well as the nature of attentional mechanisms involved. This research topic in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience aims at bringing together the latest insights and findings about the interplay between working memory and selective attention.

Advances in Biologically Inspired Information Systems
Advances in Biologically Inspired Information Systems

Author: Falko Dressler

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2007-07-03

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 3540726934

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Technology is taking us to a world where myriads of networked devices interact with the physical world in multiple ways and at multiple scales. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the most promising research directions in the area of bio-inspired computing. According to the broad spectrum addressed by the different chapters, a rich variety of biological principles and their application to ICT systems are presented.

The New Handbook of Multisensory Processing
The New Handbook of Multisensory Processing

Author: Barry E. Stein

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012-06-01

Total Pages: 841

ISBN-13: 0262017121

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The major reference work for a rapidly advancing field synthesizes central themes, reports on current findings, and offers a blueprint for future research. Scientists' attempts to understand the physiology underlying our apprehension of the physical world was long dominated by a focus on the individual senses. The 1980s saw the beginning of systematic efforts to examine interactions among different sensory modalities at the level of the single neuron. And by the end of the 1990s, a recognizable and multidisciplinary field of "multisensory processes" had emerged. More recently, studies involving both human and nonhuman subjects have focused on relationships among multisensory neuronal ensembles and their behavioral, perceptual, and cognitive correlates. The New Handbook of Multisensory Processing synthesizes the central themes in this rapidly developing area, reports on current findings, and offers a blueprint for future research. The contributions, all of them written for this volume by leading experts, reflect the evolution and current state of the field. This handbook does more than simply review the field. Each of the volume's eleven sections broadly surveys a major topic, and each begins with a substantive and thought-provoking commentary by the section editor that identifies the major issues being explored, describes their treatment in the chapters that follow, and sets these findings within the context of the existing body of knowledge. Together, the commentaries and chapters provide an invaluable guide to areas of general agreement, unresolved issues, and topics that remain to be explored in this fast-moving field.

Music and the Functions of the Brain: Arousal, Emotions, and Pleasure
Music and the Functions of the Brain: Arousal, Emotions, and Pleasure

Author: Mark Reybrouck

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2018-04-12

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 2889454525

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Music impinges upon the body and the brain. As such, it has significant inductive power which relies both on innate dispositions and acquired mechanisms and competencies. The processes are partly autonomous and partly deliberate, and interrelations between several levels of processing are becoming clearer with accumulating new evidence. For instance, recent developments in neuroimaging techniques, have broadened the field by encompassing the study of cortical and subcortical processing of the music. The domain of musical emotions is a typical example with a major focus on the pleasure that can be derived from listening to music. Pleasure, however, is not the only emotion to be induced and the mechanisms behind its elicitation are far from understood. There are also mechanisms related to arousal and activation that are both less differentiated and at the same time more complex than the assumed mechanisms that trigger basic emotions. It is imperative, therefore, to investigate what pleasurable and mood-modifying effects music can have on human beings in real-time listening situations. This e-book is an attempt to answer these questions. Revolving around the specificity of music experience in terms of perception, emotional reactions, and aesthetic assessment, it presents new hypotheses, theoretical claims as well as new empirical data which contribute to a better understanding of the functions of the brain as related to musical experience.

The Child as Musician
The Child as Musician

Author: Gary E. McPherson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-09-24

Total Pages: 697

ISBN-13: 0191061875

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The new edition of The Child as Musician: A Handbook of Musical Development celebrates the richness and diversity of the many different ways in which children can engage in and interact with music. It presents theory - both cutting edge and classic - in an accessible way for readers by surveying research concerned with the development and acquisition of musical skills. The focus is on musical development from conception to late adolescences, although the bulk of the coverage concentrates on the period when children are able to begin formal music instruction (from around age 3) until the final year of formal schooling (around age 18). There are many conceptions of how musical development might take place, just as there are for other disciplines and areas of human potential. Consequently, the publication highlights the diversity in current literature dealing with how we think about and conceptualise children's musical development. Each of the authors has searched for a better and more effective way to explain in their own words and according to their own perspective, the remarkable ways in which children engage with music. In the field of educational psychology there are a number of publications that survey the issues surrounding child and adolescent development. Some of the more innovative present research and theories, and their educational implications, in a style that stresses the fundamental interplay among the biological, environmental, social and cultural influences at each stage of a child's development. Until now, no similar overview has existed for child and adolescent development in the field of music. The Child as Musician addresses this imbalance, and is essential for those in the fields of child development, music education, and music cognition.

Perception
Perception

Author: Nicola Bruno

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-07-26

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0191038113

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The way that we interact with the environment on a daily basis is inherently multisensory. Even a simple task such as judging the location of a light in a dark room depends not only on vision but also on proprioceptive cues about the position of our body in space. The way that we experience food can be influenced not just by taste and smell, but by visual and auditory cues. Perception: A multisensory perspective adopts a multisensory approach to understanding perception. Rather than discussing each sense separately, this book defines perception as intrinsically multisensory from the start and examines multisensory interactions as the key process behind how we perceive our own body, control its movements, and perceive and recognise objects, space, and time. But the book delves even deeper. It discusses multisensory processing in conditions such as synaesthesia. It addresses attention and the role of multisensory processing in learning. By focussing on these domains, the authors highlight and identify general principles in the field of perception study and introduce models, experimental methods and pathologies that will be of interest to all those studying within the field of perception. The authors also illustrate applications that will be of interest to professionals whose work takes multisensory processing into account. As an introduction to the topic of multisensory perception, Perception: A multisensory perspective will be essential reading for students, from advanced undergraduate level through to postgraduate level in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Those studying physiotherapy and neurological rehabilitation, human-computer interface development, or the design of products or services will also find this book of interest.

Multisensory Perception
Multisensory Perception

Author: K. Sathian

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2019-09-15

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 0128125640

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Multisensory Perception: From Laboratory to Clinic surveys the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes, synthesizing information from diverse streams of research and defining hypotheses and questions to direct future work. Reflecting the nature of the field, the book is interdisciplinary, comprising the findings and views of writers with diverse backgrounds and varied methods, including psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches. Sections cover basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, the topic of crossmodal correspondences between particular sensory attributes, the related topic of synesthesia, and the clinic. - Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes - Coverage includes basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, crossmodal correspondences and the clinical aspects of multisensory processes - Includes psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches

Learning and Memory
Learning and Memory

Author: Darrell Rudmann

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2017-10-20

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 1483374858

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Learning and Memory provides students with a clear, balanced, and integrated presentation of major theoretical perspectives foundational to the study of human learning and memory. Author Darrell Rudmann uses an engaging personal writing style appropriate for students with little or no previous background in psychology to discuss topics including the major behaviorism theories of learning, modern cognitive theories of memory, social learning theories, the roles of emotion and motivation in learning, and the well-established neurological underpinnings of these perspectives. A concluding chapter on learning and memory concepts in the real world shows students to how these concepts are applied in various industries, from advertising to education and the media.