Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:22:15 BST CiteULike: nelmor Maunsell http://www.citeulike.org/user/nelmor/author/Maunsell CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/nelmor/article/341435 <i>Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 6. (1 June 2004), pp. 261-265.</i><br /><br />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. Neuronal representations of cognitive state: reward or attention? John Maunsell doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.04.003 Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 6. (1 June 2004), pp. 261-265. 2005-10-05T14:41:04-00:00 2004 Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 6 261 265 attention review reward