The Attention System of the Human Brain: 20 Years After

Abstract

Here, we update our 1990 Annual Review of Neuroscience article, “The Attention System of the Human Brain.” The framework presented in the original article has helped to integrate behavioral, systems, cellular, and molecular approaches to common problems in attention research. Our framework has been both elaborated and expanded in subsequent years. Research on orienting and executive functions has supported the addition of new networks of brain regions. Developmental studies have shown important changes in control systems between infancy and childhood. In some cases, evidence has supported the role of specific genetic variations, often in conjunction with experience, that account for some of the individual differences in the efficiency of attentional networks. The findings have led to increased understanding of aspects of pathology and to some new interventions.

Estriol‐mediated neuroprotection in multiple sclerosis localized by voxel‐based morphometry

“…A striking finding was that the overlap between the TIS and the cognitive DSA included a sizeable cluster that localized to the medial frontal cortex, a structure that has been implicated in problem solving (Bush, Luu, & Posner, 2000) and attention (Petersen & Posner, 2012; Posner & Petersen, 1990) and is known to be activated during arithmetic strategy selection (Taillan et al., 2015) and the counting Stroop test (Bush et al., 1998). In fact, one study reported that patients with focal injury (either infarction, hemorrhage, trauma, or resection of a benign tumor) in the medial frontal cortex had difficulty counting the numbers in a series of auditory stimuli (Shallice, Stuss, Alexander, Picton, & Derkzen, 2008).…”

Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge

“…As absurd as this example sounds, comparable situations often proceed unnoticed in the domain of cognition. Parents might avoid demanding the impossible of their children if they knew of Michael Posner's work on the development of attentional networks 41 , which suggests that young infants can orient (direct attention) to a new item, but may not have yet developed a system to disengage, that is, voluntarily remove attention from an attended object or behavior. Similarly, it could help parents to understand that the slow and progressive development of control mechanisms during childhood 42 makes the consideration of future rewards much less likely in young children 43 .…”

Exploring the function of selective attention and hypervigilance for threat in anxiety

“…The ventral network is right lateralized and includes the temporo-parietal junction and ventral frontal cortex, whereas the dorsal network includes the frontal eye fields, intraparietal sulcus and superior parietal lobe (see Chica, Bartolomeo & Lupianez, 2013;Petersen & Posner, 2012).…”