Attention as Gain Control

Harriet Brown

With 1

equation!

James (1890)

“It 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.”

James (1890)

“It 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.”

1. Voluntary2. Enhances processing3. Selective

1. Voluntary and involuntary2. Enhances processing3. Selective

4. Flexible5. Neurobiologically plausible6. Clear evolutionary motivation

Friston (2010)

“Attention is the optimisation of estimates of precision during hierarchical inference of the causes of sensory data.”

Low precision High precision

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Backward predictions

Forward prediction error

( )s t

( ,1)v

( )( )ig

( )( )i

( , 1)v i ( ,1)x

( ,1)x

( ,1)v

( ,2)v

( , )v i

( ,2)x

( ,2)x

( ,2)v

( ,3)v

precision-weighted prediction error

Attend RF, no drugAttend away, no drugAttend RF, scopolamineAttend away, scopolamine

No drugScopolamine

Herrero et al. (2008)

Jensen, Kaiser & Lachaux (2007)

Bauer et al. (2006)

Summary

• Attention is the optimisation of estimates of precision during hierarchical inference of the causes of sensory data

• (Mathematical) precision is (neurobiological) superficial pyramidal cell gain

• SPC gain can be altered through long-range neurotransmitters or gamma-synchrony

• Second-order predictions from higher hierarchical levels transmit top-down attentional effects

Posner Paradigm

Valid Cue Invalid Cue

Cue

Target

250

300

350

400

Reac

tion

time

(ms)

validinvalid neutral

vC vRvL

++ +

= = =

yL yRyC

constant

xL xR

50 100 150 200 250 300

0

hidden causes

time (ms)50 100 150 200 250 300

0

hidden states

time (ms)

50 100 150 200 250 300

0

hidden causes

time (ms)

Simulated results

Visual Salience

Change Emotional Valence

Task-relevance Attention

High-level representation

Peristimulus time (ms)

Spike

rate

(Hz)

Attend effective

Ignore effective

Luck et al, (1997)

50 100 150 200 250 300

0

time (ms)

target responses withvalid and invalid cues

Itti & Baldi, 2009 Friston et al., 2012

Time

Res

pons

e

Time

Res

pons

eAttended

Unattended

Attended

Unattended

Cue

Target

1. Voluntary and involuntary

2. Enhances processing

3. Selective

4. Adaptable

5. Neurobiologically plausible

6. Clearly motivated

Thanks for listening!