3.2 Attention mechanisms and selective processing

Attention is a crucial cognitive process that filters, prioritizes, and focuses on relevant information while ignoring distractions. It comes in different forms: selective, divided, and sustained, each serving unique purposes in our daily lives and cognitive tasks.

The brain's attentional network involves key regions like the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, and thalamus. Neurotransmitters like acetylcholine and norepinephrine play vital roles in modulating attention, while impairments can lead to disorders such as ADHD or neglect syndrome.

Attention and Its Role in Cognitive Processing

Types of attention

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• Selective attention focuses on specific information while filtering out irrelevant stimuli (cocktail party effect)
• Divided attention simultaneously attends to multiple stimuli or tasks (driving while talking on the phone)
• Sustained attention maintains focus on a task or stimulus over an extended period (reading a book)

Role of attention in information processing

• Attention filters relevant information for deeper processing while minimizing irrelevant stimuli to optimize cognitive resources and improve efficiency
• Attention prioritizes information based on salience (bright colors), novelty (unexpected sounds), and relevance to current goals (studying for an exam) to ensure the most important information receives necessary cognitive resources for further processing and encoding

Factors affecting attentional capacity

• Task complexity reduces attentional capacity for other stimuli as more complex tasks require more attentional resources (solving a math problem vs. watching TV)
• Expertise allows for more efficient allocation of attentional resources, increasing attentional capacity in that domain (experienced drivers can better attend to road hazards)
• Arousal level affects attentional capacity with optimal levels enhancing attention while low (drowsiness) and high (anxiety) levels can impair attention
• Attentional resources are limited and engaging in multiple demanding tasks simultaneously can lead to performance decrements
  • Attentional blink phenomenon shows impaired detection of a second target appearing shortly after the first target

Neural Basis of Attention

Neural mechanisms of attention

• Distributed brain network mediates attentional processes
  1. Prefrontal cortex involved in top-down attentional control, goal-directed behavior, and inhibition of irrelevant information
  2. Parietal cortex associated with spatial allocation of attention and integration of sensory information
  3. Thalamus filters and gates sensory information before reaching the cortex
• Neurotransmitters modulate attentional processes
  • Acetylcholine enhances sensory processing and facilitates attention to relevant stimuli
  • Norepinephrine associated with arousal, vigilance, and maintenance of sustained attention
• Impairments in neural mechanisms of attention can lead to cognitive deficits
  • Attentional disorders like ADHD characterized by difficulties maintaining focus, inhibiting distractions, and regulating behavior
  • Neurological conditions like neglect syndrome following brain damage can result in inability to attend to stimuli in specific regions of space (left side of visual field)