RS510 Chap.2 Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making
Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making
From hemispheres to networks
The chapter starts with the classic table of left and right hemisphere roles in language, construction, calculation and memory, then follows the lecture's move from localisation to interacting networks.
Attention, memory and decisions
Attention is taught through the dorsal and ventral networks and through Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control systems.
Memory is split two ways, by awareness into explicit and implicit and by time into short-term, working and long-term, with prospective memory and the two forms of amnesia added.
Decision-making is described as three stages supported by a network that includes the anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, parietal cortex and insula.
Why it matters for treatment
Neuroplasticity, through sprouting, recovered excitability and recruitment of new neurons, is the reason the lecture asks therapists to try restoration and not only compensation.
How to use the neuroscience
None of this material asks you to read scans.
It asks you to turn an observation into a hypothesis about which system is struggling, because the hypothesis decides what to test and what to train. A person who misses a sudden sound while reading points to stimulus-driven attention; one who cannot switch rules points to executive control; one who learns a routine but cannot say how points to intact procedural and impaired explicit memory.
Writing the hypothesis in a report also makes your reasoning checkable by the next clinician, which the assessment lecture treats as part of good practice.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Left and right hemisphere roles row by row
- 02
Dorsal and ventral attention networks
- 03
Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control
- 04
Explicit and implicit memory and their structures
- 05
Short-term, working, long-term and prospective memory
- 06
Retrograde and anterograde amnesia
- 07
Three stages of decision-making
- 08
Neuroplasticity and the case for restoration
Worked example · free
Match memory complaints to memory systems
- 2Identify the first complaint and a region.
- 2Identify the second complaint and a region.
- 2Identify the third complaint and a region.
Key terms
- Dorsal Attention Network
- A network of the intraparietal sulcus and frontal eye fields that supports goal-directed, top-down attention.
- Ventral Attention Network
- A network of the temporoparietal junction and ventral frontal cortex that supports stimulus-driven attention to unexpected events.
- Executive Control Network
- Posner's system for conflict resolution, error detection and self-regulation, centred on the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal cortex.
- Prospective Memory
- Remembering to carry out a delayed intention, triggered by a time, an event or an activity.
- Anterograde Amnesia
- An inability to learn and remember facts or events after a brain injury.
- Neuroplasticity
- The brain's ability to adapt and reorganise by rerouting pathways and forming new connections.
Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making FAQ
What is the difference between the dorsal and ventral attention networks?
The dorsal network, built around the intraparietal sulcus and frontal eye fields, directs attention toward goals you have chosen, such as focusing on a task. The ventral network, around the temporoparietal junction and ventral frontal cortex, responds to unexpected or salient events. They are distinct but influence each other in both directions.
How is working memory different from short-term memory?
Short-term memory recalls information immediately after it is presented and is described as effortless. Working memory holds the information and processes it at the same time, which takes effort, and it involves prefrontal and parietal cortex and the caudate nucleus. Mental arithmetic and following multi-step instructions rely on working memory.
Why does neuroplasticity matter for a rehabilitation programme?
Because it gives a reason to attempt restoration. The lecture lists synaptic sprouting in spared pathways, recovered neuronal excitability and recruitment of neurons not normally used as ways function can improve, and concludes that therapists should try to restore lost function as well as teaching compensation.
Which brain regions support decision-making?
The lecture lists the anterior cingulate for error monitoring, conflict and uncertainty, the orbitofrontal cortex for weighing rewards and punishments under risk, the ventral striatum for predicting reward, the parietal cortex for probabilistic reasoning and value, and the insula for the bodily signals behind a gut feeling. It stresses that they work as an interacting network rather than one decision centre.
Assessment move
Draw the memory tree and the three attention networks from memory on one page, then label each with a region. These distinctions are compact enough for a quiz notes page and they are exactly the pairs a five-question multiple-choice quiz can test.
