Imaging Selective Attention In The Human Brain

Presenting an overview of recent advances in the study of human selective attention with neurobiological measures, a review of the field highlighting new data from fMRI, PET, MEG and ERP methods. Selective attention was a central topic at the dawn of cognitive psychology, and it has proved equally central in the development of cognitive neuroscience. The recent advent of functional imaging, using PET, fMRI and more recently event-related fMRI, has transformed the study of selective attention. Other neurobiological measures, such as MEG and ERP recordings, have also played a critical role in human research, as has single-cell recording in related animal work. Together, these various neurobiological measures have shed new light on how selective attention operates. They have demonstrated striking modulations of sensory processing, and provided new information on the control processes that may be responsible for such modulation. Given all this recent progress across a number of different neurobiological approaches the time has come to assess just how far the field has advanced; to identify the emerging consensus; and to outline the outstanding issues for future research.