Module 7
Ward Chapter 9 The attending brain
Attention: the process by which certain information is selected for further
processing and other information is discarded. It is needed to avoid sensory
overload.
Inattentional blindness: a failure to be aware of a visual stimulus because
attention is directed away from it.
Change blindness: a failure to notice the appearance/disappearance of objects
between two alternating images (separated with a brief blank screen).
Although both of these examples are metaphorically labeled as blindness, they
reflect the capacity limitations of our attentional systems rather than a
fundamental limitation of vision.
Salient: any aspect of a stimulus that, for whatever reason, stands out from the
rest.
Orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another. Divided into:
- Covert orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another
without moving the eyes/body.
- Overt orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another by
moving the eyes/body.
Inhibition of return: a slowing of reaction time associated with going to a
previously attended location.
Exogenous orienting: attention that is externally guided by a stimulus.
Endogenous orienting: attention is guided by the goals of the perceiver, for
example…
Visual search: a task of detecting the presence or absence of a specified target
object in an array of other distracting objects.
Attentional blink: an inability to report a target stimulus if it appears soon after
another target stimulus. Wanneer mensen twee visuele stimuli snel achter elkaar
moeten identificeren, is de nauwkeurigheid van de tweede stimulus slecht als
deze plaatsvindt binnen 200 tot 500 ms na de eerste.
In general, various frontal and parietal regions tend to be co-activated in tasks
requiring attention. Frontal regions are more implicated in task selection and
motor selection, and parietal regions acting as a hub that pulls together bottom-
up (sensory) signals with top-down (goal-based) signals.
A ventral route (or ‘what’ pathway) leading into the temporal lobes is concerned
with identifying objects. A dorsal route (or ‘where’ pathway) leading into the
parietal lobes is concerned with locating objects in space. The dorsal route also
guides action toward objects and some researchers also consider it a ‘how’
pathway.
Lateral intraparietal area (LIP): contains neurons that respond to salient stimuli in
the environment and are used to plan eye movements.
Saccade: a fast, ballistic movement of the eye.
LIP bevat een salience map: a spatial layout that emphasizes the most
behaviorally relevant stimuli in the environment.
LIP houdt zich ook bezig met het plannen van saccades op basis van geluid. Om
,geluid en visie te combineren moet remapping plaatsvinden: adjusting one set of
spatial coordinates to be aligned with a different coordinate system.
Frontal eye field (FEF): part of the frontal lobes responsible for voluntary
movement of the eyes.
Whereas early visual cortex has a complete seperation between visual hemifields
(left space projecting to right visual cortex and vice versa), the parietal lobes of
the right and left hemispheres of humans represent the full visual field.
Hemispatial neglect: a failure to attend to stimuli on the opposite side of space to
a brain lesion. (een lesie aan de rechterkant van het brein betekent minder
aandacht aan de linkerkant van de ruimte)
Bij mensen is de rechter pariëtale kwab gespecialiseerder dan de linker. Ofwel de
rechter draagt meer bij aan de constructie van de salience map waardoor er in
een brein, zonder lesie, een overmatige aandacht is voor de linkerruimte:
pseudo-neglect.
Pseudo-neglect: in a non-lesioned brain there is over-attention to the left side of
space.
De rechter pariëtaal kwab houdt zich voornamelijk bezig met de salient stimulus.
De linker pariëtaal kwab onderdrukt vooral de andere stimuli.
De linker intrapariëtaal sulcus is nuttig wanneer de taak is om te focussen op de
niet-saliente kenmerken (en de saliente kenmerken te negeren). De rechter
intrapariëntaal sulcus reageert meer wanneer de taak is om de saliente
kenmerken te herkennen.
Dus: aandacht kan verdeeld worden over verschillende mechanismen.
The parietal lobes have a key role in attention because they interface between
regions involved in executive control (top-down aspects of attention) and regions
involved in perceptual processing (bottom-up aspects of attention). A trend is to
consider attention in terms of separable but interacting component processes.
Feature integration theory (FIT): a model of how attention selects perpetual
objects (color and shape) into a reportable experience.
Pop-out: the ability to detect an object among distractor objects in situations in
which the number of distractors presented is unimportant.
Illusory conjunctions: a situation in which visual features of two different objects
are incorrectly perceived as being associated with a single object.
Phenomenal conciousness: het rauwe gevoel van sensatie. De inhoud van
bewustzijn.
Access conciousness: het vermogen om te rapporteren over de inhoud van het
bewustzijn.
,Ward Chapter 15 The conscious brain
Introspection: an active process in which a person becomes conscious of their
inner states.
Hard Problem: explaining why and how consciousness emerges from a physical
system, an explanatory gap between neuroscience and subjective states.
Easy Problem: observing the detailed neural mechanisms and behaviors
associated with consciousness.
It is possible that by solving the Easy Problem, the relationship between neural
activity and consciousness will become transparent and the explanatory gap may
be narrowed if not completely bridged.
Zombie: in philosophy, a hypothetical person who has the same cognitive
capacities as everyone else but lacks consciousness.
The function of consciousness may be inherently social. It is about being able to
transform different kinds of basic information (memory, perception, emotion) into
communicable metrics like confidence or vividness.
Metacognition: second-order awareness of thoughts (perceiving red is a first-
order state, and our confidence in perceiving red is a second-order state).
Levels of consciousness: the relative degree to which an individual is conscious.
Contents of consciousness: the information that one is presently aware of.
A division between awareness of the external world (visual) versus awareness
of our internal world (mind wandering, self-awareness, agency).
Levels of consciousness
Wakefulness: a global measure of how conscious someone is.
Awareness: the degree to which one is aware of one’s environment and self.
Coma: loss of consciousness (low wakefulness, low awareness) due to brain
damage.
Vegetative state: disorder of consciousness associated with wakefulness but no
awareness of self or environment.
REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep: a stage of sleep with high signs of wakeful
brain activity and often linked to reports of dreaming. (increase in awareness
without an increase in wakefulness)
NREM sleep: a stage of sleep (consisting of several sub-stages) and generally low
signs of wakeful brain activity.
Lucid dreaming: a state where some people report a degree of control over the
content of their dreams.
Locked-in syndrome: complete paralysis (except for vertical eye movements)
arising from brainstem damage, but preserved cognitive ability and normal levels
of consciousness.
Minimal conscious state: a disorder of consciousness associated with wakefulness
and fluctuating awareness.
It is not simply the case that the brain is more active when consciousness is high,
although there is some general truth in that statement. Instead, levels of
consciousness are related to connectedness (the flow of activity between brain
regions) and complexity (not just a simple wave-like pattern).
Contents of consciousness: the external world
Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC): the minimal set of neuronal events and
mechanisms sufficient for a specific conscious percept (comparing conscious and
, unconscious processes to the same stimulus). Het zijn de minimale neuronale
processen in de hersenen die voldoende zijn om een bewuste ervaring (een
bewust percept) te veroorzaken. Dus: welke hersenactiviteit is precies nodig om
iets bewust te ervaren, en niet alleen onbewust te verwerken?
- In higher-order thought (HOT) theories, it is a secondary representation
elsewhere in the brain that determines whether information is conscious.
- In global workspace theories, content is considered conscious if it is globally
available to other cognitive operations (language, action) and this may be
supported by a lateral frontoparietal network of regions. In this view,
consciousness is linked to flexibility in behavior.
- In integrated information theory, conscious content is related to a mathematical
measure of connection complexity. More importance is placed on a posterior
cortical hub zone than the prefrontal cortex.
- In predictive processing and re-entry theories, conscious contents are linked to
top-down processing; for example, perceptual illusions occur because they are
based on our expectations about the world.
Binocular rivalry: presentation of two different images, one to each eye, which
typically results in a single image being perceived which alternates over time.
One of the key features of the Global Neuronal Network Model is that of ignition.
This is a large and sudden engagement of the wider network that occurs 200-300
msec after stimulus onset that discriminates conscious and unconscious trials.
Ward Chapter 9 The attending brain
Attention: the process by which certain information is selected for further
processing and other information is discarded. It is needed to avoid sensory
overload.
Inattentional blindness: a failure to be aware of a visual stimulus because
attention is directed away from it.
Change blindness: a failure to notice the appearance/disappearance of objects
between two alternating images (separated with a brief blank screen).
Although both of these examples are metaphorically labeled as blindness, they
reflect the capacity limitations of our attentional systems rather than a
fundamental limitation of vision.
Salient: any aspect of a stimulus that, for whatever reason, stands out from the
rest.
Orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another. Divided into:
- Covert orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another
without moving the eyes/body.
- Overt orienting: the movement of attention from one location to another by
moving the eyes/body.
Inhibition of return: a slowing of reaction time associated with going to a
previously attended location.
Exogenous orienting: attention that is externally guided by a stimulus.
Endogenous orienting: attention is guided by the goals of the perceiver, for
example…
Visual search: a task of detecting the presence or absence of a specified target
object in an array of other distracting objects.
Attentional blink: an inability to report a target stimulus if it appears soon after
another target stimulus. Wanneer mensen twee visuele stimuli snel achter elkaar
moeten identificeren, is de nauwkeurigheid van de tweede stimulus slecht als
deze plaatsvindt binnen 200 tot 500 ms na de eerste.
In general, various frontal and parietal regions tend to be co-activated in tasks
requiring attention. Frontal regions are more implicated in task selection and
motor selection, and parietal regions acting as a hub that pulls together bottom-
up (sensory) signals with top-down (goal-based) signals.
A ventral route (or ‘what’ pathway) leading into the temporal lobes is concerned
with identifying objects. A dorsal route (or ‘where’ pathway) leading into the
parietal lobes is concerned with locating objects in space. The dorsal route also
guides action toward objects and some researchers also consider it a ‘how’
pathway.
Lateral intraparietal area (LIP): contains neurons that respond to salient stimuli in
the environment and are used to plan eye movements.
Saccade: a fast, ballistic movement of the eye.
LIP bevat een salience map: a spatial layout that emphasizes the most
behaviorally relevant stimuli in the environment.
LIP houdt zich ook bezig met het plannen van saccades op basis van geluid. Om
,geluid en visie te combineren moet remapping plaatsvinden: adjusting one set of
spatial coordinates to be aligned with a different coordinate system.
Frontal eye field (FEF): part of the frontal lobes responsible for voluntary
movement of the eyes.
Whereas early visual cortex has a complete seperation between visual hemifields
(left space projecting to right visual cortex and vice versa), the parietal lobes of
the right and left hemispheres of humans represent the full visual field.
Hemispatial neglect: a failure to attend to stimuli on the opposite side of space to
a brain lesion. (een lesie aan de rechterkant van het brein betekent minder
aandacht aan de linkerkant van de ruimte)
Bij mensen is de rechter pariëtale kwab gespecialiseerder dan de linker. Ofwel de
rechter draagt meer bij aan de constructie van de salience map waardoor er in
een brein, zonder lesie, een overmatige aandacht is voor de linkerruimte:
pseudo-neglect.
Pseudo-neglect: in a non-lesioned brain there is over-attention to the left side of
space.
De rechter pariëtaal kwab houdt zich voornamelijk bezig met de salient stimulus.
De linker pariëtaal kwab onderdrukt vooral de andere stimuli.
De linker intrapariëtaal sulcus is nuttig wanneer de taak is om te focussen op de
niet-saliente kenmerken (en de saliente kenmerken te negeren). De rechter
intrapariëntaal sulcus reageert meer wanneer de taak is om de saliente
kenmerken te herkennen.
Dus: aandacht kan verdeeld worden over verschillende mechanismen.
The parietal lobes have a key role in attention because they interface between
regions involved in executive control (top-down aspects of attention) and regions
involved in perceptual processing (bottom-up aspects of attention). A trend is to
consider attention in terms of separable but interacting component processes.
Feature integration theory (FIT): a model of how attention selects perpetual
objects (color and shape) into a reportable experience.
Pop-out: the ability to detect an object among distractor objects in situations in
which the number of distractors presented is unimportant.
Illusory conjunctions: a situation in which visual features of two different objects
are incorrectly perceived as being associated with a single object.
Phenomenal conciousness: het rauwe gevoel van sensatie. De inhoud van
bewustzijn.
Access conciousness: het vermogen om te rapporteren over de inhoud van het
bewustzijn.
,Ward Chapter 15 The conscious brain
Introspection: an active process in which a person becomes conscious of their
inner states.
Hard Problem: explaining why and how consciousness emerges from a physical
system, an explanatory gap between neuroscience and subjective states.
Easy Problem: observing the detailed neural mechanisms and behaviors
associated with consciousness.
It is possible that by solving the Easy Problem, the relationship between neural
activity and consciousness will become transparent and the explanatory gap may
be narrowed if not completely bridged.
Zombie: in philosophy, a hypothetical person who has the same cognitive
capacities as everyone else but lacks consciousness.
The function of consciousness may be inherently social. It is about being able to
transform different kinds of basic information (memory, perception, emotion) into
communicable metrics like confidence or vividness.
Metacognition: second-order awareness of thoughts (perceiving red is a first-
order state, and our confidence in perceiving red is a second-order state).
Levels of consciousness: the relative degree to which an individual is conscious.
Contents of consciousness: the information that one is presently aware of.
A division between awareness of the external world (visual) versus awareness
of our internal world (mind wandering, self-awareness, agency).
Levels of consciousness
Wakefulness: a global measure of how conscious someone is.
Awareness: the degree to which one is aware of one’s environment and self.
Coma: loss of consciousness (low wakefulness, low awareness) due to brain
damage.
Vegetative state: disorder of consciousness associated with wakefulness but no
awareness of self or environment.
REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep: a stage of sleep with high signs of wakeful
brain activity and often linked to reports of dreaming. (increase in awareness
without an increase in wakefulness)
NREM sleep: a stage of sleep (consisting of several sub-stages) and generally low
signs of wakeful brain activity.
Lucid dreaming: a state where some people report a degree of control over the
content of their dreams.
Locked-in syndrome: complete paralysis (except for vertical eye movements)
arising from brainstem damage, but preserved cognitive ability and normal levels
of consciousness.
Minimal conscious state: a disorder of consciousness associated with wakefulness
and fluctuating awareness.
It is not simply the case that the brain is more active when consciousness is high,
although there is some general truth in that statement. Instead, levels of
consciousness are related to connectedness (the flow of activity between brain
regions) and complexity (not just a simple wave-like pattern).
Contents of consciousness: the external world
Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC): the minimal set of neuronal events and
mechanisms sufficient for a specific conscious percept (comparing conscious and
, unconscious processes to the same stimulus). Het zijn de minimale neuronale
processen in de hersenen die voldoende zijn om een bewuste ervaring (een
bewust percept) te veroorzaken. Dus: welke hersenactiviteit is precies nodig om
iets bewust te ervaren, en niet alleen onbewust te verwerken?
- In higher-order thought (HOT) theories, it is a secondary representation
elsewhere in the brain that determines whether information is conscious.
- In global workspace theories, content is considered conscious if it is globally
available to other cognitive operations (language, action) and this may be
supported by a lateral frontoparietal network of regions. In this view,
consciousness is linked to flexibility in behavior.
- In integrated information theory, conscious content is related to a mathematical
measure of connection complexity. More importance is placed on a posterior
cortical hub zone than the prefrontal cortex.
- In predictive processing and re-entry theories, conscious contents are linked to
top-down processing; for example, perceptual illusions occur because they are
based on our expectations about the world.
Binocular rivalry: presentation of two different images, one to each eye, which
typically results in a single image being perceived which alternates over time.
One of the key features of the Global Neuronal Network Model is that of ignition.
This is a large and sudden engagement of the wider network that occurs 200-300
msec after stimulus onset that discriminates conscious and unconscious trials.
