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Selective Attention

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Vision in Drosophila

Part of the book series: Studies of Brain Function ((BRAIN FUNCTION,volume 12))

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Abstract

Considering the huge amount of sensory information reaching the nervous system at any moment, one of the major tasks of the brain is to separate the important from the irrelevant. If all information were processed continuously with equal scrutiny, the depth of analysis would be seriously limited by the size of the brain. Among the most powerful means of a brain to cope with this situation is the ability to limit some of its operations to a momentarily selected fraction of the sensory input. Such a mechanism may be particularly appropriate in the case of compound eyes, which unceasingly sample almost all of visual space.

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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Heisenberg, M., Wolf, R. (1984). Selective Attention. In: Vision in Drosophila. Studies of Brain Function, vol 12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69936-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69936-8_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-69937-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69936-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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