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Attention

RDoC Classification

Domain: Cognitive Systems

Description

Attention refers to a range of processes that regulate access to capacity-limited systems, such as awareness, higher perceptual processes, and motor action. The concepts of capacity limitation and competition are inherent to the concepts of selective and divided attention.

Molecules

Implementation

GABAGlutamate

Control

AcetylcholineDopamineGlutamateHistamineSerotonin

Cells

Parvalbumin-positive interneurons

Circuits

Balance between task positive network (TPN) vs DMN

Implementation

local circuit interactionspulvinarTRN

Control

Amygdalaascending/descending information pathways

Attentional Systems

basal forebrain limbic systemDorsal attention networkVentral attention network

Physiology

fMRI

Sensory areas from peripheral to central

Auditory ERP

N1N2Neural oscillationsP1P300processing negativity

Visual ERP

N2pcnegativity (SN)Neural oscillationsP300Selection modulations of sensory ERP componentsslow waves

Peripheral Physiology

Heart rate decelerationPupil dilation

Behavior

ANT task distractibilityAttentional lapses vs sustained attentionDistractibilityObject/feature attentionPsychophysicsSpatial attention

Paradigms

attentional blink and psychological refractory period paradigmblocked channel-selection tasksdichotic listeningdistraction paradigms (capture)Dual Task Paradigmsinter-modal selective attentionspatial and non-spatial cuing paradigms,time-series of response times to extract variability and frequency domain analysesvisual search

Target detection tasks in the absence of competition are considered measues of sustained attention, and not selective or divided attention, which are subsumed under cog control