Attending to remember and remembering to attend.
Attention and memory are intimately linked. Two functional imaging studies in this issue of Neuron provide novel evidence for this powerful, reciprocal relationship. Turk-Browne and colleagues report that attention simultaneously facilitates the formation of both implicit and explicit memories, while Summerfield and colleagues demonstrate that memory for the past can guide the allocation of attention in the present. Together, these elegant studies reveal bidirectional interactions between attention and memory.
Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Nicole M
NM
Dudukovic
Anthony D
AD
Wagner
D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*