Single neuronal activity was recorded in the visual cortex of monkeys trained to attend to stimuli at one location in the visual field and ignore stimuli at another. When both locations were within the receptive field of a cell in prestriate area V4 or the inferior temporal cortex, the response to the unattended stimulus was dramatically reduced. Cells in the striate cortex were unaffected by attention. 

Moran and Desimone 1985 Study

- Moran and Desimone 1985 Study
- Anton-Erxleben and Carrasco 2013 Study

New York University

Selective attention to a cell's receptive field globally enhances or suppresses responses, increasing or decreasing the firing of that cell. Attention could also sharpen the tuning of cortical neurons, causing them to focus more keenly on specific stimuli. Attention could also induce a shift in tuning of the cell, indicating a change in the cell's preferred stimulus

Attention Alters the Functioning of Individual Neurons

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

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