Gross potential changes in the electrical activity of the brain due to a sensory stimulus such as a flashing light. The location of recording, the type of stimulus, and the state of the subject are reflected in the properties of ERPs, such as the wave shape and the latency (i.e., time delay). 
With ERPs, researchers ask participants to do the same task over and over again and they average all the EEGs recorded during those repeated trials. The variation due to random firing averages out. ERP has become the favorite tool of neuroscientists studying moment-to-moment consequences of attention in the brain.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

Attention affects the functioning of the brain. When many cortical neurons work together to solve a complicated problem, their activity becomes synchronized to some degree. However, there are contributions of multiple simultaneously active networks, regional differences in the timing of activity, and individual variation in the firing of neurons. 

New York University

Johns Hopkins University

- Uses of Attention
- How attention affects brain function
- Brain sites creating and directing attention
- Attention disorders
- Consciousness
- Types of Attention
- Cingulate Cortex
- Posterior parietal lobe
- Arousal
- Observing Attention
- Neuroanatomical Substrates of Attention
- Attention Selects Stimuli for Processing
- Attention is Deployed in Several Different Ways
- A Network of Brain Sites Creates and Directs Attention

Subjects in Attention and Higher Cognition

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

Attention, in addition to being used to focus attention on certain stimuli, is used to systematically scan the world, or order to find some specific item in a sea of distracters.

Using Attention to Search for Objects

Observing Attention

PET and fMRI studies have confirmed that a general consequence of attention is an enhancement of activity of the brain regions that process key aspects of the target stimuli.

Neuroanatomical Substrates of Attention

- Top-Down Attention
- Bottom-Up Attention
- Overt Attention
- Covert Attention
- Sustained Attention
- Voluntary Attention
- Involuntary Attention

Types of Attention

Arousal is the global level of alertness of the individual. It is distinct from attention in that it is not selective to a certain stimulus or stimuli, it is simply the overall level of alertness.

Arousal

- Superior colliculus
- Pulvinar
- Lateral intraparietal area (LIP)
- Intraparietal sulcus (IPS)
- Frontal Eye Field
- Temporoparietal junction
- Voluntary control of attention
- Reflexive attention

Attention is Deployed in Several Different Ways

- attention
- arousal 
- cocktail party effect
- dichotic presentation 
- shadowing
- inattentional blindness 
- dvided-attention tasks
- attentional spotlight
- attentional bottleneck 
- early-selection model 
- late-selection model 
- perceptual load 

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