Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!bionet!agate!bandit!brp From: brp@bandit.berkeley.edu (Bruce Raoul Parnas) Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience Subject: Re: Attention, Neurochemically Speaking Message-ID: <1991Apr11.204827.18313@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 11 Apr 91 20:48:27 GMT References: <23933@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: /etc/organization Lines: 24 In article <23933@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> tv@sei.cmu.edu (T. VanderHeyden) writes: > >What's the chemical action going on here (LSD notwithstanding)? Is there a >chemical released by some part of the brain that, when present, causes one >to pay more attention to details and, when absent, causes one to ignore >certain details? What's been written on this subject? well, any reader of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a clue to the answer. Attention is hindered by the presence of a Somebody Else's Problem (SEP) field. When one of these is emitted, the issue is treated by all present as somebody else's problem, and is ignored. This is used by certain alien species to escape unnoticed as they visit Earth. Attention, coversely, must be related to the lack of such a field. > >Todd VanderHeyden sorry, but i just had to, bruce (brp@bandit.berkeley.edu) bruce (brp@bandit.berkeley.edu)