This article is subdivided into two parts. In the first part, we review recent data showing that in the cerebral cortex there are multiple parallel space coding circuits, each of them related to the organization of a particular action. We argue that this architecture fit well modular theories of attention, and in particular that known as the premotor theory of attention, whereas it is hardly compatible with the view that spatial attention is a unitary system. In the second part, we present experiments showing that preparation to act toward an object (e.g., grasping an object) determines automatically a facilitation to detect and discriminate visual shapes congruent with the object acted upon. This top-down facilitation is due to an activation of post-central areas involved in the visual analysis of the stimulus and it is observed also when effecters, other than that prepared for responding, are used. These new findings confirm and greatly enlarge the explanatory value of the premotor t...
From spatial attention to attention to objects: An extension of the premotor theory of attention
CRAIGHERO, Laila
1998
Abstract
This article is subdivided into two parts. In the first part, we review recent data showing that in the cerebral cortex there are multiple parallel space coding circuits, each of them related to the organization of a particular action. We argue that this architecture fit well modular theories of attention, and in particular that known as the premotor theory of attention, whereas it is hardly compatible with the view that spatial attention is a unitary system. In the second part, we present experiments showing that preparation to act toward an object (e.g., grasping an object) determines automatically a facilitation to detect and discriminate visual shapes congruent with the object acted upon. This top-down facilitation is due to an activation of post-central areas involved in the visual analysis of the stimulus and it is observed also when effecters, other than that prepared for responding, are used. These new findings confirm and greatly enlarge the explanatory value of the premotor t...I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
