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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Cognition and behavior: Brain maps direct our attention

by  /  1 December 2010
THIS ARTICLE IS MORE THAN FIVE YEARS OLD

This article is more than five years old. Autism research — and science in general — is constantly evolving, so older articles may contain information or theories that have been reevaluated since their original publication date.

Selective senses: Different regions of the brain are responsible for processing sounds (red), sight (green) and touch (blue).

The parts of the brain that help us pay attention to some things and not others have specialized regions for different senses, such as sight and sound, according to a paper published online in November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Different regions of the brain are primarily responsible for processing external stimuli, such as sight, sound or touch. Entirely other regions of the brain form an attention network that becomes active when the brain responds to one of these senses, and directs activity in the primary brain regions.

The new study shows that each region in the attention network is also physically divided into different categories for the senses.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan 56 people, the researchers found that a sub-region responsible for a specific sense — sound, for example — within the attention network communicates with the part of the brain that processes that sense. The sub-regions also communicate directly with each other.

The researchers propose that the attention network comprises mini maps, reproduced in at least a dozen places in the brain, that represent a “menu of everything we pay attention to,” says Jeff Anderson, assistant professor of neuroradiology at the University of Utah.

In another experiment, the researchers directed 16 people watching an outdoor landscape to think about particular aspects of the scene. For example, when they asked the participants to think about how something in the scene might feel to the touch, they found that the sub-region in the attention network that correlates with touch is activated.

Understanding how the brain is wired to pay attention could help researchers understand what goes awry in disorders such as autism, says Anderson. People with autism have difficulty switching their focus between external stimuli and internal dialogue. Anderson says this could be the result of poor communication between regions in the attention network.