attention – The Miller Lab @ MIT

28

Aug 2018

Attention is rhythmic!

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Two new, exciting papers in Neuron that “put the last nail(s) in the coffin of sustained attention.” They present compelling evidence that sustained attention is not sustained at all but fluctuates with theta rhythms and alpha/beta rhythms. This provides yet more evidence that the brain works by rhythmic switching between representations.

Ian C. Fiebelkorn, Mark A. Pinsk, Sabine Kastner
A Dynamic Interplay within the Frontoparietal Network Underlies Rhythmic Spatial Attention
Neuron, Volume 99, Issue 4, 22 August 2018, Pages 842-853.e8

Randolph F. Helfrich, Ian C. Fiebelkorn, Sara M. Szczepanski, Jack J. Lin, Josef Parvizi, Robert T. Knight, Sabine Kastner
Neural Mechanisms of Sustained Attention Are Rhythmic
Neuron, Volume 99, Issue 4, 22 August 2018, Pages 854-865.e5

An excellent Preview by Rufin VanRullen: Attention Cycles

For further reading:
Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386-396. View PDF »

Buschman,T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2010) Shifting the Spotlight of Attention: Evidence for Discrete Computations in Cognition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 4(194): 1-9. View PDF »
19

Mar 2018

Attentional Changes in Either Criterion or Sensitivity Are Associated with Robust Modulations in Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

The effects of attention in the brain can be partitioned into changes in sensitivity of in the subject’s criterion. In visual cortex, only changes in sensitivity are seen. Here, Luo and Maunsell show that neurons in frontal cortex are sensitive to changes in sensitivity as well as criterion.

Luo, T. Z., & Maunsell, J. H. (2018). Attentional Changes in Either Criterion or Sensitivity Are Associated with Robust Modulations in Lateral Prefrontal Cortex. Neuron.
27

Feb 2018

Neuromodulation of Attention

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

A very nice review of how neuromodulation affects the mechanisms and circuits underlying attention.

Thiele, A., & Bellgrove, M. A. (2018). Neuromodulation of Attention. Neuron, 97(4), 769-785.
9

Jan 2018

Electrical stimulation of macaque lateral prefrontal cortex modulates oculomotor behavior indicative of a disruption of top-down attention

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

The authors report different effects of stimulation of the lateral prefrontal cortex. Stimulation at or near the FEF prolonged or decreased saccade reaction time, depending on task instructions. More rostral stimulation affected the attention weighting of saccade targets.

Schwedhelm, P., Baldauf, D., & Treue, S. (2017). Electrical stimulation of macaque lateral prefrontal cortex modulates oculomotor behavior indicative of a disruption of top-down attention. Scientific reports, 7(1), 17715.
29

Sep 2017

Disruption of Conscious Access in Schizophrenia

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Due to a disruption of top-down attentional amplification.

Berkovitch, L., Dehaene, S., & Gaillard, R. (2017). Disruption of Conscious Access in Schizophrenia. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
18

Sep 2017

Occipital Alpha and Gamma Oscillations Support Complementary Mechanisms for Processing Stimulus Value Associations

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Paper showing different, yet complementary, effects of attention and value on alpha vs gamma oscillations in posterior cortex.

Marshall, T. R., den Boer, S., Cools, R., Jensen, O., Fallon, S. J., & Zumer, J. M. (2017). Occipital Alpha and Gamma Oscillations Support Complementary Mechanisms for Processing Stimulus Value Associations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
28

Aug 2017

Crows Rival Monkeys in Cognitive Capacity

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

And they show the same independence between the visual hemifields that we saw in primates.

Balakhonov, D., & Rose, J. (2017). Crows Rival Monkeys in Cognitive Capacity. Scientific Reports, 7.

For further reading:

Buschman,T.J., Siegel, M., Roy, J.E. and Miller, E.K. (2011) Neural substrates of cognitive capacity limitations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108(27):11252-5. View PDF »

Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2015) Working memory capacity: Limits on the bandwidth of cognition. Daedalus, Vol. 144, No. 1, Pages 112-122. View PDF »

Kornblith, S., Buschman, T.J., and Miller, E.K. (2015) Stimulus load and oscillatory activity in higher cortex. Cerebral Cortex. Published online August 18, 2015 doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv182. View PDF »
21

Aug 2017

Working Memory Replay Prioritizes Weakly Attended Events

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Working memory for different items in a sequence is prioritized by how much attention is paid to the item at encoding.

Jafarpour, A., Penny, W., Barnes, G., Knight, R. T., & Duzel, E. (2017). Working Memory Replay Prioritizes Weakly Attended Events. eNeuro, 4(4), ENEURO-0171.
8

Aug 2017

The Active Construction of the Visual World

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Your eyes dart about rhythmically sampling different parts of a scene in little bites. Your memory system papers this over to create a illusion of seamless perception. Let Parr and Friston break it down for you:

Parr, T., & Friston, K. J. (2017). The active construction of the visual world. Neuropsychologia.

For further reading:

Buschman,T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2010) Shifting the Spotlight of Attention: Evidence for Discrete Computations in Cognition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 4(194): 1-9. View PDF »

Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386-396. View PDF
24

Jul 2017

High-alpha band synchronization across frontal, parietal and visual cortex mediates behavioral and neuronal effects of visuospatial attention

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

MEG study in humans shows the functional significance of high alpha-band synchrony for visual attention.

Lobier, M., Palva, J. M., & Palva, S. (2017). High-alpha band synchronization across frontal, parietal and visual cortex mediates behavioral and neuronal effects of visuospatial attention. bioRxiv, 165563.