Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!pohl.cis.upenn.edu!peretz From: peretz@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Samuel R. Peretz) Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience Subject: Re: Attention, Neurochemically Speaking Message-ID: <40953@netnews.upenn.edu> Date: 11 Apr 91 21:28:48 GMT References: <23933@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Reply-To: peretz@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Samuel R. Peretz) Lines: 32 Nntp-Posting-Host: pohl.cis.upenn.edu In article <23933@as0c.sei.cmu.edu>, tv@sei.cmu.edu (T. VanderHeyden) writes: |>Attention in humans is quite a varied thing. Children notice different |>things than adults do. People taking acid might fall in love with their |>bathroom toilets and spend the whole trip in the bathroom, while a |>seven-foot-tall tattooed skinhead in a knit minidress might escape notice |>in some sections of New York City. |> |>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? |> |>Todd VanderHeyden One hypothesis is that attention is related to synchronized oscillations in certain brain regions. I can't remember the exact reference, but there was a paper by Francis Crick a couple years back regarding this "searchlight" hypothesis of attention. I think the brain region discussed in that particular paper was the hypothalamus. --Sam <=======================================================> < Samuel R. Peretz > < 126 Anatomy/Chemistry Bldg. \ / > < University of Pennsylvania ------- > < Inst. for Neurological Sciences | 0 0 | > < (215) 898-8048 | V | > < srp@vision5.anatomy.upenn.edu | === | > < aka sam@retina.anatomy.upenn.edu ------- > < aka peretz@grad1.cis.upenn.edu > <=======================================================>