Neuronal representations of cognitive state: reward or attention?
Abstract
The effects of spatial or featural attention on the activity of neurons have been studied in many experiments that have used a variety of neurophysiological approaches. Other experiments have examined how expectations about reward are represented in neuronal activity in various brain regions. Although attention and reward are distinct concepts, I argue here that many neurophysiological experiments on attention and reward do not permit a clean dissociation between the two. This problem arises in part because reward contingencies are the only parameter manipulated in any of these experiments. I describe how attention and reward expectations have been confounded, giving rise to uncertainty about how signals related to attention and reward are distributed in the brain.
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Reward automatically changes the visual salience of reward-associated perceptual features, and this is theoretically distinct from the known role of reward in the strategic establishment of attentional set.
“The direct nature of this influence deserves emphasis; the idea is that reward automatically changes the visual salience of reward-associated perceptual features, and this is theoretically distinct from the known role of reward in the strategic establishmentofattentional set (Maunsell, 2004).”
From Reward Changes Salience in Human Vision via the Anterior Cingulate (2010) · cites this paper as Maunsell, 2004
Irrespective of whether reward was signaled prior to a block of trials, prior to an individual trial, or contingent on the target, the beneficial influence of reward in these studies can be readily explained in terms of ongoing top-down attentional control processes.
“Irrespective of whether reward was signaled prior to a block of trials, prior to an individual trial, or contingent on the target, the beneficial influence of reward in all these studies can be readily explained in terms of ongoing top-down attentional control processes (Maunsell, 2004; Stănişor, van der Togt, Pennartz, & Roelfsema, 2013).”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Maunsell, 2004
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“Attentional bias to reward-associated stimuli is thought to reflect the activation of the behavioral approach system (Gray, 1991; Ikemoto and Panksepp, 1999) or a change in the incentive salience of previously neutral stimuli (Robinson and Berridge, 1993; Maunsell, 2004).”
Background
- Authors
- Maunsell, J. H. R.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Maunsell, John H.R.
- ORCID
- Maunsell, John H.R.
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2004-06
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 261-265
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2126116397
- Cited by
- 404
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 0.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (R01EY005911)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- attention, reward anticipation, cognitive states, neural representations, spatial attention, reward contingency, confounding variables
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Attention, Brain, Cognition, Electrophysiology, Humans, Neurons, Reward
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