Neuronal representations of cognitive state: reward or attention?
The effects of spatial or featural attention on the activity of neurons have been studied in many experiments that have used a variety of neurophysiological approaches. Other experiments have examined how expectations about reward are represented in neuronal activity in various brain regions. Although attention and reward are distinct concepts, I argue here that many neurophysiological experiments on attention and reward do not permit a clean dissociation between the two. This problem arises in part because reward contingencies are the only parameter manipulated in any of these experiments. I describe how attention and reward expectations have been confounded, giving rise to uncertainty about how signals related to attention and reward are distributed in the brain.
Maunsell
John H R
JH
Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Baylor College of Medicine, Division of Neuroscience, One Baylor Plaza, S-603, Houston, TX, USA. maunsell@bcm.tmc.edu <maunsell@bcm.tmc.edu>
D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward