Title: Visual Attention and the Role of Normalization
Description: Visual perception can be improved by the intentional allocation of attention to specific visual components. This "top-down" attention can improve perception of specific locations in space, or of specific visual features at all locations in space. Both spatial and feature attention are thought to involve the feedback of attention signals from higher cortical areas to visual cortex, where it modulates the firing rates of specific sensory neurons. However, the mechanisms that determine how top-down attention signals modulate the firing rates of visual neurons are not fully understood.