Similar and dissociable mechanisms for attention to internal versus external information.

ABSTRACT: We compared two attentional executive processes: updating, which involved attending to a perceptually present stimulus, and refreshing, which involved attending to a mentally active representation of a stimulus no longer perceptually present. In separate blocks, participants either replaced a word being held in working memory with a different word (update), or they thought back to a just previously seen word that was no longer perceptually present (refresh). Bilateral areas of frontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and parietal cortex were similarly active for both updating and refreshing, suggesting that a common network of areas is recruited to bring information to the current focus of attention. In a direct comparison of update and refresh, regions more active for update than refresh

SUBMITTER: Roth JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2749565 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature