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Neural mechanisms of attention and control: losing our inhibitions?

Nature Neuroscience volume 8, pages 1631–1633 (2005)Cite this article

How are we able to focus our attention on the task at hand while ignoring myriad distractions? An elegant neuroimaging study in this issue finds that, contrary to a widely held view, the prefrontal cortex implements attentional control by amplifying task-relevant information, rather than by inhibiting distracting stimuli.

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Figure 1: Possible attentional functions of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the task used by Egner and Hirsch1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorststraat 1, Amsterdam, 1081 BT, The Netherlands

    Sander Nieuwenhuis

  2. the Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Nick Yeung

Authors
  1. Sander Nieuwenhuis
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  2. Nick Yeung
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Nieuwenhuis, S., Yeung, N. Neural mechanisms of attention and control: losing our inhibitions?. Nat Neurosci 8, 1631–1633 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1205-1631

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