The Testing Psychologist Podcast

244. Attention w/ Dr. Michael Posner

6 snips
Oct 25, 2021
Guest
Michael Posner
Dr. Michael Posner, cognitive neuroscientist and longtime attention researcher, reflects on five decades of work and major honors. He explores the history and evolution of attention research. He outlines three attention networks and their links to disorders, imaging, meditation, animal studies, and future mind-reading ethics.
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INSIGHT

Three Brain Networks That Define Attention

  • Attention decomposes into three brain networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control.
  • The alerting network uses norepinephrine from the locus coeruleus, orienting prioritizes sensory modalities, and the executive network controls volitional focal attention.
INSIGHT

Executive Network As The Gate To Consciousness

  • The executive attention network may initiate widespread brain synchrony that underlies conscious awareness.
  • Its long-axon cells recruit other regions into an attentional workspace, producing near whole-brain synchrony around the attended object.
INSIGHT

Attention Networks Work Together Not Separately

  • The three attention networks interact rather than operate in isolation, forming coordinated brain systems.
  • Scientists break down networks to study components, but in real behavior the networks communicate continuously.
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