The Neuropsychology of Attention

Abstract

It has been about 20 years since Dr. Cohen authored the first edition of his book, The Neuropsychology of Attention. In the decade prior to the first edition, major advances had occurred on how the brain mediates attention and the impact of brain disturbances on attentional functions. This Neuropsychology of Attention did a brilliant job of summarizing and organizing this information. The book was written so clearly and provided so much information that both the novice and expert could understand and learn much from reading it. But this book did even more. When it was written, there was still much that was not understood, and this book excited curiosity and promoted further research. The Malthusian growth model predicts that the world’s population will increase exponentially. I suspect this mathematical growth model also characterizes how our knowledge of brain-mediated processes, including attention, has grown. Since the first edition was published two decades ago, the neuropsychology of attention has continued to evolve, and there is now a vast research literature exploring this topic. Thus, the time is ripe for a second edition of The Neuropsychology of Attention.