[The neurophysiology of the interaction between attention and episodic memory: a review of studies into the visual...

Attention is the process that provides us with the capacity to select perceptions or internal representations for conscious processing and action. Given that episodic memory is where our personal experiences are stored together with the context they take place in, it has been observed that disturbances affecting attention, whether they are due to neurological disorders or experimental manipulation, deteriorate the storage of episodic information.

The aim of this study is to explain, from a neurophysiological perspective, how the processes of attention and memory interact with each other and which areas of the brain are involved in those processes. This objective is motivated by the fact that, despite empirical evidence supporting the interaction between the two processes, to our knowledge no reviews dealing with such an interaction have been published to date in the literature.

In this work attention and memory are defined in terms of the neurophysiological changes that take place when the two processes occur. In what follows we offer a description of the systems that constitute attention, as well as those involved in the acquisition and recognition of information in episodic memory. Finally, we propose a possible explanation of how the mechanisms of interaction between these two processes work.

The system of attention and the system of episodic memory are brought into play at the same time; the prefrontal cortex, in particular, plays a role in both processes. Attention seems to precede the mechanisms behind the acquisition of information while it is held during recognition.