CNS 2023: Sabine Kastner, PhD, “Everyone knows what attention is …” скачать в хорошем качестве

CNS 2023: Sabine Kastner, PhD, “Everyone knows what attention is …”

Sabine Kastner, PhD, (Princeton University) gives the George A. Miller Prize lecture at the CNS 2023 meeting in San Francisco. Abstract: The selection of information from our cluttered sensory environments, often referred to as ‘attention’, is one of the most fundamental cognitive operations performed by the primate brain. In the visual domain, the selection process is thought to be mediated by a spatial mechanism – a ‘spotlight’ that can be flexibly shifted around the visual scene. In my lecture, I will provide an overview on its neural basis by discussing neuroimaging and intracranial electrophysiology studies in the human and monkey brain. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the spatial selection mechanism engages a large-scale network that consists of multiple nodes distributed across all major cortical lobes and includes also subcortical regions in the midbrain and thalamus. Electrophysiology studies have provided a rich understanding of the specific functions of each network node and their functional interactions. Key findings reveal that (i) the cortical network is coordinated by a thalamic timekeeper in the pulvinar and (ii) processing in sensory cortex is modulated by feedback signals from a fronto-parietal control network. The fronto-parieto-pulvinar network is characterized by complex temporal dynamics that set up alternating attentional states, which emphasize either environmental sampling of information or shifting of spatial selection to a new location and can be measured as behavioral rhythms. Collectively, these studies in the adult brain set the stage for translational applications such as exploring the typical and atypical development of attention function and its deficits in neurological and psychiatric diseases.