Pay attention! University of Melbourne brain study puts attention in the spotlight

Media Release, Friday 15 June 2007

University of Melbourne researchers have shed new light on the activity in the brain which enables us to pay attention to some of the things we see, while barely noticing others.

The findings – the first to show the complex interactions between two different areas of the brain when an object catches our eye – will be published in the international journal Science this week (14 June, US Eastern time).

The study was conducted by Associate Professor Trichur Vidyasagar and Dr Yuri Saalmann, from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, and Dr Ivan Pigarev, a visiting scientist from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Associate Professor Vidyasagar says knowing how different parts of the brain work to influence attention could ultimately lead to a better understanding of conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, dyslexia or schizophrenia.

It could also lead to strategies which could prevent car and work place accidents caused by a loss of attention.

This study by Associate Professor Vidyasagar and his colleagues has found that a higher brain area – known as the lateral intraparietal cortex - which controls attention - stimulates activity in a lower area, called the medial temporal area which influences the processing of visual information.

“Attention is necessary for all the things we do but it is not efficient or possible for us to process every item in our sensory environment,” Associate Professor Vidyasagar says.

“So the brain allocates attention based upon a set of priorities that are valid for that moment and focuses upon specific objects or features.

“Our research has found how the higher brain region we studied acts as a master controller of our attention.

“It acts very much as a news editor who receives a large number of media alerts and has to decide where to send a reporter and has to keep making such decisions all day.

“We have found that this brain area controls attention mainly by synchronizing the activities of its own nerve cells with those in the early parts of the visual pathway.

“This interaction between the two areas helps to select those signals from the visual world which should be processed further.”

Media contact:
Associate Professor Trichur Vidyasagar
University of Melbourne
Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences
03 9349 7404