Is the Anterior Attentional System as Complex as the Posterior Attentional System?

Abstract

Abstract: The objectives of this review paper were to demonstrate whether there are separable attentional processes related to the frontal lobes, and to illustrate procedures on how to examine this question. Distinctions among frontal lobe attentional processes can be achieved if cognitive processes are adequately differentiated and if a sufficient number of patients are assessed to allow investigation of the relation of these distinct processes to different frontal lobe regions. The first section summarizes early evidence for the fractionation of the anterior attentional system using clinical tests. The second section extends these findings using experimental tests such as feature integration reaction time tasks. Different attentional processes include activation, task setting, shifting, and differentiating among relevant and irrelevant information. Although there are multiple anterior attentional processes related to different frontal brain regions, such anterior attentional processes likely interact with posterior attentional processes, with task demands altering the relationship among brain regions involved.