ASYMMETRY OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION IN HEALTHY SUBJECTS AND PATIENTS WITH CERVICAL FOCAL DYSTONIA

The environment continuously provides a wealth of information through our senses. This poses a major challenge to our brains to effectively process the relevant pieces of information over space and time, involving attentional processes. Attention selects, modulates and sustains focus on information most relevant for behaviour going beyond our limited capacity to process competing options. Voluntary allocation of attention to features, objects, or regions in space is controlled by top-down mechanisms. On the other hand, salient stimuli can automatically attract attention, even though the subject does not have intentions to attend to these stimuli. A key question is how attention is shaped by…