Kia Nobre
Wu Tsai Professor of Psychology
Associate Director and Center Director
Center for Neurocognition and Behavior
Yale

Zoom: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/87503237041
 

 

 

 

 

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Focusing attention on sensory x memory contents to guide behavior

Abstract: The ability to anticipate, select, prioritize, and prepare the relevant contents is fundamental to flexible, proactive, and adaptive cognition. Traditionally, these attention functions have been investigated in relation to extracting relevant contents from the incoming sensory stream. Much more recently, the ability to focus attention on contents of internal, memory representations was recognized and garnered experimental interest. Research on “internal attention” reveals fascinating ways in which neural systems and mechanisms differ from those in “external attention”. We are now ready for the next steps. During natural behavior in extended and dynamic contexts, the focus of attention shifts seamlessly between sensory and memory contents. In my talk, I will highlight some unique properties of internal attention and share our early attempts to understand how attention brokers between external and internal contents to ground adaptive cognition.