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Shifting baselines in attention research

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 1, pages 147–148 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Psychophysical and physiological studies have shown that attending to a stimulus can enhance its sensory processing. Functional imaging studies now reveal that attention can also modulate activity in sensory brain areas before stimulus onset, when the observer prepares to attend to an anticipated stimulus. These preparatory `baseline shifts' in brain activity pose many new questions, and potentially offer new insights into the neural basis of perceptual awareness.

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Acknowledgements

John Driver's research is supported by a Medical Research Council (UK) grant. Chris Frith is supported by the Wellcome Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR , UK

    Jon Driver

  2. the Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK

    Chris Frith

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  1. Jon Driver
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  2. Chris Frith
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National Institute of Mental Health: Schizophrenia

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES

Brain imaging: localization of function

Hallucinogenic drugs

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Driver, J., Frith, C. Shifting baselines in attention research. Nat Rev Neurosci 1, 147–148 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35039083

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