The autonomous brain
Subtitle: a neural theory of attention and learning
By: Peter M. Milner.
Publisher: L. Erlbaum Associates
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Mahwah, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 155
Subjects: Mind and body; Brain -- Psychophysiology; Attention; Learning, Psychology of
Description: "The behaviorist credo that animals are devices for translating sensory input into appropriate responses dies hard. The thesis of this book is that the brain is innately constructed to initiate behaviors likely to promote the survival of the species, and to sensitize sensory systems to stimuli required for those behaviors. Animals attend innately to vital stimuli (reinforcers) and the more advanced animals learn to attend to related stimuli as well.

Thus, the centrifugal attentional components of sensory systems are as important for learned behavior as the more conventional paths. It is hypothesized that the basal ganglia are an important source of response plans and attentional signals."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [126]-140) and indexes.