In article <23933 at as0c.sei.cmu.edu>, tv at sei.cmu.edu (T. VanderHeyden) writes:
|>Attention in humans is quite a varied thing. Children notice different
|>things than adults do. People taking acid might fall in love with their
|>bathroom toilets and spend the whole trip in the bathroom, while a
|>seven-foot-tall tattooed skinhead in a knit minidress might escape notice
|>in some sections of New York City.
|>|>What's the chemical action going on here (LSD notwithstanding)? Is there a
|>chemical released by some part of the brain that, when present, causes one
|>to pay more attention to details and, when absent, causes one to ignore
|>certain details? What's been written on this subject?
|>|>Todd VanderHeyden
One hypothesis is that attention is related to synchronized oscillations
in certain brain regions. I can't remember the exact reference, but there
was a paper by Francis Crick a couple years back regarding this
"searchlight" hypothesis of attention. I think the brain region discussed
in that particular paper was the hypothalamus.
--Sam
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< Samuel R. Peretz >
< 126 Anatomy/Chemistry Bldg. \ / >
< University of Pennsylvania ------- >
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< srp at vision5.anatomy.upenn.edu | === | >
< aka sam at retina.anatomy.upenn.edu ------- >
< aka peretz at grad1.cis.upenn.edu >
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