A key property of neural processing in higher mammals is the ability to focus resources by selectively directing attention to relevant perceptions, thoughts or actions. Research into attention has grown rapidly over the past two decades, as new techniques have become available to study higher brain function in humans, non-human primates, and other mammals. Neurobiology of Attention is the first encyclopedic volume to summarize the latest developments in attention research.An authoritative collection of over 100 chapters organized into thematic sections provides both broad coverage and access to focused, up-to-date research findings. This book presents a state-of-the-art multidisciplinary perspective on psychological, physiological and computational approaches to understanding the neurobiology of attention. Ideal for students, as a reference handbook or for rapid browsing, the book has a wide appeal to anybody interested in attention research.* Contains numerous quick-reference articles covering the breadth of investigation into the subject of attention* Provides extensive introductory commentary to orient and guide the reader* Includes the most recent research results in this field of study
In order to focus on principles, each chapter in this work is brief, organized around 1-3 wiring diagrams of the key circuits, with several pages of text that distil the functional significance of each microcircuit
During the last three decades, there have been enormous advances in our understanding of the neural mechanisms of selective attention at the network as well as the cellular level. The Oxford Handbook of Attention brings together the different research areas that constitute contemporary attention research into one comprehensive and authoritative volume. In 40 chapters, it covers the most important aspects of attention research from the areas of cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, human and animal neuroscience, computational modelling, and philosophy. The book is divided into 4 main sections. Following an introduction from Michael Posner, the books starts by looking at theoretical models of attention. The next two sections are dedicated to spatial attention and non-spatial attention respectively. Within section 4, the authors consider the interactions between attention and other psychological domains. The last two sections focus on attention-related disorders, and finally, on computational models of attention. Aimed at both scholars and students, the Oxford Handbook of Attention provides a concise and state-of-the-art review of the current literature in this field.
This book has brought together leading investigators who work in the new arena of brain connectomics. This includes ‘macro-connectome’ efforts to comprehensively chart long-distance pathways and functional networks; ‘micro-connectome’ efforts to identify every neuron, axon, dendrite, synapse, and glial process within restricted brain regions; and ‘meso-connectome’ efforts to systematically map both local and long-distance connections using anatomical tracers. This book highlights cutting-edge methods that can accelerate progress in elucidating static ‘hard-wired’ circuits of the brain as well as dynamic interactions that are vital for brain function. The power of connectomic approaches in characterizing abnormal circuits in the many brain disorders that afflict humankind is considered. Experts in computational neuroscience and network theory provide perspectives needed for synthesizing across different scales in space and time. Altogether, this book provides an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities in deciphering brain circuits in health and disease.
This authoritative volume provides a well balanced and comprehensive treatment of the mathematical theory of human response time and the role it plays in our understanding of the mind's organization.
This book contains original articles submitted to the Seventh International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics (ICCN 2019). The brain is an endless case study of a complex system characterized by multiple levels of integration, multiple time scales of activity, and multiple coding and decoding properties. The contribution of several disciplines, mathematics, physics, computer science, neurobiology, pharmacology, physiology, and behavioral and clinical sciences, is necessary in order to cope with such seemingly unattainable complexity that transforms the experimental information into a tricky puzzle which hides the correspondence with model predictions. This conference gathered active participants to discuss ideas and pose new questions from different viewpoints, ranging from single neurons and neural networks to animal/human behavior in theoretical and experimental studies. The conference is organized with plenary lectures, mini-symposia, interdisciplinary round tables, and oral and poster sessions.
"The book is well-organized and comprehensive in covering the essential material. The inclusion of human factors material is a strength that is not covered in other books. . . . The book is a balanced survey which will be of value to graduate students or anyone wanting to enter the field and needing a broad overview." --Steven Yantis, The Johns Hopkins University "My overall impression is that the authors have combined their expertise and experience in the classroom to provide a text that will clearly cover attention more completely and in a more coherent and less confusing manner than any other available text. . . . this is the best available text on the psychology of attention at the advanced undergraduate level." --Mark Faust, University of South Alabama "This text represents a strong review of the empirical and theoretical developments in attention work." --Tom Busey, Indiana University "A nice overview of the ′classic′ work on attention, with up-to-date consideration of the literature, usefully bringing together some more applied literatures in which attention is a central construct...The scholarship seems comprehensive and up-to-date, and the authors do a nice job of presenting research in a fair and neutral manner." --Richard Carlson, Pennsylvania State University "The chapters present the material at a level appropriate for a first course on attention. The focus on providing a comprehensive treatment of the highlights of a variety of different topics related to attention is a strength." --Art Kramer, University of Illinois Attention is one of the fastest growing research areas in cognitive psychology. In light of the growing importance of this topic, there are surprisingly few texts that provide a coherent overview of the field of attention. Authors Addie Johnson and Robert W. Proctor have written Attention: Theory and Practice for students, researchers, and practitioners who wish to gain insight into this area in a comprehensible and consistent manner. Attention: Theory and Practice provides a balance between a readable overview of attention and an emphasis on how theories and paradigms for the study of attention have developed. The book highlights the important issues and major findings while giving sufficient details of experimental studies, models, and theories so that results and conclusions are easy to follow and evaluate. Rather than brushing over tricky technical details, the authors explain them clearly, giving readers the benefit of understanding the motivation for and techniques of the experiments in order to allow readers to think through results, models, and theories for themselves. Features and benefits of this text: Balanced. The book gives equal coverage to theory, experimental paradigms and results, neuropsychology, and applications. Adaptable. "Technical Boxes" isolate technical procedures and difficult models, which can be omitted without interrupting the flow of the chapters, allowing instructors to adjust the material to the level of their course. Pedagogical. The book includes brief chapter previews, chapter summaries, highlighted key words, an end-of-book glossary, and an abundance of figures and tables that enhance student understanding. Attention is an accessible text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, as well as an important resource for researchers and practitioners interested in gaining an overview of the field of attention.
The Neural Theory of Visual Attention of Bundesen, Habekost, and Kyllingsbæk (2005) was proposed as a neural interpretation of Bundesen’s (1990) theory of visual attention (TVA). In NTVA, visual attention functions via two mechanisms: by dynamic remapping of receptive fields of cortical cells such that more cells are devoted to behaviorally important objects than to less important ones (filtering) and by multiplicative scaling of the level of activation in cells coding for particular features (pigeonholing). NTVA accounts for a wide range of known attentional effects in human performance and a wide range of effects observed in firing rates of single cells in the primate visual system and thus provides a mathematical framework to unify the 2 fields of research. In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Psychology, some of the leading theories of visual attention at both the cognitive, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological levels are presented and evaluated. In addition, the Research Topic encompasses application of the framework of NTVA to various patient populations and to neuroimaging as well as genetic and psychopharmacological studies.