Developing Attention: Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms

Developing Attention: Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms.

Brain networks underlying attention are present even during infancy and are critical for the developing ability of children to control their emotions and thoughts. For adults, individual differences in the efficiency of attentional networks have been related to neuromodulators and to genetic variations. We have examined the development of attentional networks and child temperament in a longitud...

Developing brain networks of attention.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Attention is a primary cognitive function critical for perception, language, and memory. We provide an update on brain networks related to attention, their development, training, and pathologies. RECENT FINDINGS An executive attention network, also called the cingulo-opercular network, allows voluntary control of behavior in accordance with goals. Individual differences amon...

Serial attention mechanisms in visual search: a direct behavioral demonstration.

In visual search, inefficient performance of human observers is typically characterized by a steady increase in reaction time with the number of array elements-the so-called set-size effect. In general, set-size effects are taken to indicate that processing of the array elements depends on limited-capacity resources, that is, it involves attention. Contrasting theories have been proposed to acc...

Barrier Mechanisms in the Developing Brain

The adult brain functions within a well-controlled stable environment, the properties of which are determined by cellular exchange mechanisms superimposed on the diffusion restraint provided by tight junctions at interfaces between blood, brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). These interfaces are referred to as "the" blood-brain barrier. It is widely believed that in embryos and newborns, this b...

Stress and the social brain: behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms