Brain Mechanisms of Attention: Sensory Selection to Free Will

ABSTRACT:

Selective attention relies on intricate neural mechanisms that govern how the brain processes information. In this lecture, I will explore research on the neural underpinnings of voluntary spatial, feature, and object attention, utilizing both EEG and fMRI techniques. I will highlight key findings related to attentional control in the frontal and parietal cortices, as well as how these processes influence sensory and perceptual processing. Additionally, I will present studies examining voluntary attention in free-choice conditions, where individuals exert their free will to direct attention without external guidance. The framework for this presentation is our Specificity of Control (SpoC) Model of attention, which highlights the microstructural organization of top-down control and the specificity of sensory biasing it imparts in the visual cortex.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Professor of Psychology and Neurology, and the former Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He received his doctoral degree in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, and has taught and conducted research at UC San Diego, Dartmouth College, and Duke University. His laboratory investigates brain mechanisms of perception and attention in health and disease. His team has identified many of the basic brain processes by which humans focus their attention and filter out distracting events, as well as how these processes break down in disorders of attention. In 1994, he chaired the founding committee of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, an international scientific society with over 3000 members; he continues to serve on the Governing Board for the society and is currently President and Treasurer of the corporate board. In 1998, he was the founding Director of the Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. He is an active editor, and the author of numerous journal publications and books, including his celebrated foundational textbook, Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind. For a decade he was the Director of the Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, a training program for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars that was supported by NIMH, NIDA, and the Kavli Foundation. From 2008 to 2015, Mangun served as Dean of Social Sciences at UC Davis, where he led the academic programs of ten university departments ranging from Anthropology and Psychology to Economics, Political Science, History and Philosophy. He is also an outspoken advocate for access and inclusion in higher education, and is currently serving as the founding co-chair of the College of Letters and Science Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. Among other honors and awards, Professor Mangun received the Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award from the Society for Psychophysiological Research, an NIMH Senior Scientist Award, and a Distinguished Scientist Lecturer Award from the American Psychological Association. He is an elected fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2024 he received the Award for Education in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience, and was also named a Fulbright U.S. Distinguished Scholar.