Citation

Schroeder CE, Wilson DA, Radman T, Scharfman H, Lakatos P. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 2010; 20(2): 172-176.

Affiliation

Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.conb.2010.02.010

PMID

20307966

PMCID

PMC2963579

Abstract

Sensory processing is often regarded as a passive process in which biological receptors like photoreceptors and mechanoreceptors transduce physical energy into a neural code. Recent findings, however, suggest that: first, most sensory processing is active, and largely determined by motor/attentional sampling routines; second, owing to rhythmicity in the motor routine, as well as to its entrainment of ambient rhythms in sensory regions, sensory inflow tends to be rhythmic; third, attentional manipulation of rhythms in sensory pathways is instrumental to perceptual selection. These observations outline the essentials of an Active Sensing paradigm, and argue for increased emphasis on the study of sensory processes as specific to the dynamic motor/attentional context in which inputs are acquired.

Language: en