Published on December 18, 2018 | Updated on January 29, 2019

CORTEX conference by Stefan Treue

March 8th, 2016

How attention shapes visual information processing in primate cortex.

Our senses provide much more information to the central nervous system then can be adequately processed. We use attention as a powerful selection mechanism for focussing processing resources on the small fraction of incoming information that is behaviorally relevant at a given moment. The talk will present experimental findings focusing on the influence of attention on information processing in visual cortex in primates. The observed neurophysiological effects of attention are well matched to the perceptual consequences of allocating attention, namely an enhanced perception of attended objects at the expense of the perceptual strength of unattended portions of the visual input.