Each competing representation receives activation from other sources: deliberate attention activates representations of the intended task via 'top-down control' (or 'concentration'); while bottom-up involuntary influences (established emotional processing biases or well-practiced negative habits of thought) activate distracting threat representations.
In parallel, the upcoming visual information of the target object selected by foveal vision and attention activates information in the PFC that subsequently sensitizes the most likely candidate interpretations of that individual object, irrespective of context31.
Additionally, there are theories according to which selective attention activates neural populations separate from those processing the stimuli [15], [22].
In particular, we wanted to answer the question, to what extent the covert tracking of an auditory target during SPEM influences the activation of the cortical pursuit network and if divided attention modulates the cortical pursuit network in general or if attention activates specific regions in addition to the SPEM system.
As expected, the active attention conditions activated components of the well-described "attention network," as compared with the neutral baseline.
Cate et al. found that auditory attention could activate peripheral visual cortex [ 49].
Unlike the typical anterior STS region identified by research in the macaque, most human fMRI studies report that social attention cues activate posterior STS and regions of adjacent STG and middle temporal gyrus (MTG; Hein and Knight 2008; Nummenmaa and Calder 2009).
The locus coeruleus (LC)–noradrenergic system, which has been implicated in arousal and attention, is activated by visceral stimuli such as colon and bladder distension.
Andy Newberg, MD at the University of Pennsylvania has found that both in meditating monks and in praying nuns, areas of the brain important in concentration and attention were activated, while areas that govern how a person relates to the external world were deactivated.
