The Frontoparietal Attention Network

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the attentional mechanisms that ensure that behavior is directed toward important stimuli in the environment. We review the evidence for a coherent neural network in dorsal parietal and frontal cortex that sends top-down signals, reflecting both the location and features of task-relevant objects, that bias processing in sensory regions such as occipital cortex. Top-down signals for location aid selection of an object by changing neural activity throughout an occipital retinotopic map, not just at the attended location, resulting in a relative increase in activity at that location in the map. The overall behavioral goals that determine which objects are selected are not set within the frontoparietal network, but reflect the interaction of networks involved in reward, memory, and executive control. These networks may provide inputs to dorsal frontoparietal regions that are transformed into biasing signals.