Effects of Attention in Visual Cortex: Linking Single Neuron Physiology to Visual Detection and Discrimination

Abstract

We all know what attention is. Attention is so obvious and apparent that up until recently nobody really took notice of it. According to William James (1890), attention “is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” Thus, attention is the first step towards perceiving the world. The late John G. Taylor fiercely argued that attention and consciousness are inseparable. Conscious awareness of the environment cannot occur without attention. Mancas, Ferrera, and Riche have masterfully put together this book of attention from a multi-disciplinary perspective. To them, like James, attention is the first step to perception. Attention analyzes the world and creates inner representations of it. Thus to them, like Taylor, attention is a gate of conscious awareness at the interface between the inner and outer and it is the key to survival of the organism. Mancas, Ferrera, and Riche go one step further in detailing how modeling attention can improve current artificial intelligence and what advantages these attentive systems will have over others. Aside from being faster andmore efficient in terms of memory storage, attentive AI systems will be able to detect novel patterns in their input streams of information and react appropriately to potentially dangerous situations. Undoubtedly, this book is an enthusiastic applause of attention and it will prove highly valuable as a resource to engineers, computer scientists, and neuroscientists, as it will allow each community to see what the others do, what is left to do, and what needs to done. Foundation