Cortical circuits for the control of attention

How are some thoughts favored over others? A wealth of data at the level of single neurons has yielded candidate brain areas and mechanisms for our best-understood model: visual attention. Recent work has naturally evolved toward efforts at a more integrative, network, understanding. It suggests that focusing attention arises from interactions between widespread cortical and subcortical networks that may be regulated via their rhythmic synchronization.

► Visual attention may be focused via a frontoparietal network acting on visual cortex. ► These network interactions may be regulated via rhythmic oscillations. ► The brain may operate discretely with pulses of activity routing packets of information. ► Oscillations are limited in bandwidth and may explain why conscious thought is limited in capacity.