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Rose: Consciousness

Chapter 08

Section 8.2.2 Long-range loops

For a comprehensive (book-length) overview of the white matter connectivity within the primate brain see Schmahmann and Pandya (2006).

Section 8.3 Selective attention

A common theme in attention research is that top-down control of sensory input originates from (or passes through) the frontal lobes (e.g. section 8.3.2). Some relatively direct evidence for such connectivity in humans has recently been published, showing that stimulation of the frontal eye fields increases the blood flow though parts of early visual areas V1-V4 (Ruff et al.; 2006). Any stimuli processed by those parts are perceived by the subject to have enhanced intensity, an effect similar to that of top-down attention (see also Kayser and Logothetis, 2006). Additionally, several papers and commentaries in support of such theories for attention have recently appeared in a special edition of the journal Neural Networks (Taylor et al., 2006). Detailed mathematical models and simulations are provided, and alternative approaches and problems are also discussed.

Section 8.4 Motor efference copy

The correct version of Figure 8.12 is the one on this web site.

Additional neurophysiological evidence for the existence, mechanisms and effects of efference copy in vision has come from Silvanto et al. (2006) and Sommer and Wurtz (2006). These include a role for the frontal eye fields.

References

Kayser, C. and Logothetis, N. (2006) Vision: stimulating your attention. Current Biology 16, R581-R583.

Ruff, C.C., Blankenburg, F., Bjoertomt, O., Bestmann, S., Freeman, E., Haynes, J-D., Rees, G., Josephs, O., Deichmann, R. and Driver, J. (2006) Concurrent TMS-fMRI and psychophysics reveal frontal influences on human retinotopic visual cortex. Current Biology 16, 1479-1488.

Schmahmann, J.D. and Pandya, D.N. (2006) Fiber Pathways of the Brain. Oxford University Press, New York.

Silvanto, J., Lavie, N. and Walsh, V. (2006) Stimulation of the human frontal eye fields modulates sensitivity of extrastriate visual cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology 96, 941-945.

Sommer, M.A. and Wurtz, R.H. (2006) Influence of the thalamus on spatial visual processing in frontal cortex. Nature 444, 374-377.

Taylor, J.G., Nobre, A.C. and Shapiro, K. (2006) eds. Brain and attention. Neural Networks 19, 1321-1462.