The Neuroscience Of Attention

This authoritative reference provides a comprehensive examination of the nature and functions of attention and its relationship to broader cognitive processes. The editor and contributors are leading experts who review the breadth of current knowledge, including behavioral, neuroimaging, cellular, and genetic studies, as well as developmental and clinical research. Chapters are brief yet substantive, offering clear presentations of cutting-edge concepts, methods, and findings. The book addresses the role of attention deficits in psychological disorders and normal aging and considers the implications for intervention and prevention. It includes 85 illustrations. New to This Edition *Significant updates and many new chapters reflecting major advances in the field. *Important breakthroughs in neuroimaging and cognitive modeling. *Chapters on the development of emotion regulation and temperament. *Expanded section on disorders, including up-to-date coverage of ADHD as well as chapters on psychopathy and autism. *Chapters on cognitive training and rehabilitation.

This book will provide the reader with a solid overview of the mechanisms and models in the neuroscience of attentional control and selection from leading authorities working in humans and animals, and incorporating a array of neuroscience methods from single neuron recordings to functional brain imaging.

This volume presents the latest advances in understanding attention: its anatomy, circuitry, functions, and deficits. Outstanding investigators have written brief yet substantive chapters in which they not only summarize key findings but also illuminate their goals and the directions their research is taking. Coverage includes different cognitive models of attention; knowledge emerging from functional imaging and genetic studies; and neurophysiological, developmental, and neuropsychological approaches. Emerging knowledge is presented on processes that impair or alter attention, and clinical implications are discussed. Linking many levels of analysis, and featuring over 100 illustrations, the book moves us closer to a coherent view of the attentional system and the key role it plays in everyday life.

Attention in Action provides state-of-the-art discussion of the role of attention in action and of action in constraining attention.

Attention refers to our ability to selectively process the vast array of stimuli impinging upon our senses at every moment. The mental processes of attention are critical for allowing us to maintain focus and complete tasks efficiently, even within distracting environments. The brain mechanisms of attention have been studied for decades, yet much still remains unknown, and consensus on core issues remains elusive. A unique aspect of this book are chapters that highlight recent debates on critical issues in attention research. Each of these chapters includes a comprehensive discussion paper that is followed by peer commentaries and an authors' responses. These debates include whether attention can modulate activity of even the earliest cortical processing region and whether changes in white matter are critical for plasticity-related effects of attention training. In addition to these discussion chapters, the book presents cutting-edge research on some of the newest theories of attentional control and selective attention, including the influence of practice, epigenetics, reward, social interaction, and distractor suppression. These studies employ advanced cognitive neuroscience methods such as neurostimulation, functional neuroimaging pattern analysis, and the evaluation of oscillatory brain activity to shed light on the brain mechanisms underlying attention. The chapters in this book were originally published as articles in various issues of the journal Cognitive Neuroscience.

This volume describes research and theory concerning the cognitive neuroscience of attention. Filling a key gap, it emphasizes developmental changes that occur in the brain-attention relationship in infants, children, and throughout the lifespan and reviews the literature on attention, development, and underlying neural systems in a comprehensive manner. Special features include: * a new model of the neural control of eye movements; * a developmental perspective on the burgeoning literature on the cognitive neuroscience of attention; * the integration of ideas, research, and theories across chapters within each section via summary and commentary essays; and * a summary of the most recent work in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of attention by several of the leading researchers in this field.

In this volume there is a strong emphasis on translational science, with preclinical approaches suggesting new directions for development of new treatments. Individual chapters describe how neuroimaging, neuroendocrine, genetic and behavioral studies use powerful research tools that are offering a completely new understanding of the factors that increase vulnerability to ADHD. The clinical impact of co-morbid problems, especially obesity and substance misuse, are highlighted and explain what such problems can tell us about the etiology of ADHD, more generally. Reviews of the pharmacology of established drug treatments for ADHD justify an exciting novel theory for their therapeutic actions and address questions about the effects of their long‐term use.

Interdisciplinary perspectives on definitional concerns, underlying mechanisms, and the functional significance of joint attention. Academic interest in the phenomenon of joint attention—the capacity to attend to an object together with another creature—has increased rapidly over the past two decades. Yet it isn't easy to spell out in detail what joint attention is, how it ought to be characterized, and what exactly its significance consists in. The writers for this volume address these and related questions by drawing on a variety of disciplines, including developmental and comparative psychology, philosophy of mind, and social neuroscience. The volume organizes their contributions along three main themes: definitional concerns, such as the question of whether or not joint attention should be understood as an irreducibly basic state of mind; processes and mechanisms obtaining on both the neural and behavioral levels; and the functional significance of joint attention, in particular the role it plays in comprehending spatial perspectives and understanding other minds. The collected papers present new work by leading researchers on one of the key issues in social cognition. They demonstrate that an adequate theory of joint attention is indispensable for a comprehensive account of mind.