Brain Electrical Activity (IMAGE)
Caption
Much of the electrical activity in the brain looks like noise and is not associated with reactions to any particular stimuli. The scientists found that there was structure in the noise that could reveal the state of attentiveness in the brain. In this model of brain activity in the monkey visual cortex, the overall electrical activity was measured over time in each small area. Yellow and orange areas have high activity and blue areas have low activity, corresponding to “On” and “Off” states for a set of neurons. Researchers showed a monkey images across its entire field of vision, but like most of us, the animal paid attention (attended) to only a small part of that field. When the researchers looked closely, they could see waves of activity pass over the whole visual cortex, but the waves were faster and higher in the area corresponding to the attended part of the visual field.
Credit
Yan-Liang Shi/Engel lab/CSHL, 2022
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