Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention

Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention explores the fundamental mechanisms of attention and related cognitive functions from cognitive neuroscience perspectives. Attention is an essential cognitive ability that enables humans to process and act upon relevant information while ignoring distracting information, and the capacity to focus attention is at the core of mental functioning. Understanding the neural bases of human attention remains a key challenge for neuroscientists and psychologists, and is essential for translational efforts to treat attentional deficits in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Cognitive electrophysiology is at the center of a multidisciplinary approach that involves the efforts of psychologists, neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists to identify basic brain mechanisms and develop translational approaches to improve mental health. This edited volume is authored by leading investigators in the field and discusses methods focused on electrophysiological recordings in humans, including electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) methods, and also incorporates evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention illuminates specific models about attentional mechanisms in vision, audition, multisensory integration, memory, and semantic processing in humans.

Section 1: Spatial Attention 1. Profiling the Spatial Focus of Visual Attention 2. How the Brain Prevents and Terminates Shifts of Attention 3. Neuronal and Neural-Population Mechanisms of Voluntary Visual-Spatial Attention 4. Sequential Effects in the Central Cue Posner Paradigm - On-line Bayesian Learning 5. ERP-fMRI Combination for the Study of Visual Perception and Spatial Attention 6. Source Localization of Visual Stimuli in Peripersonal Space 7. Involuntary Cross-Modal Spatial Attention Influences Visual Perception