The neural basis of visual selective attention: a commentary on Harter and Aine

Harter and Aine (1984) have proposed a 'neural specificity' model of visual selective attention, based primarily on evidence from recordings of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in human subjects. In this framework, they consider ERP components elicited during visual-spatial attention to reflect selective neural processing in the tectopulvinar-partietal pathway, whereas selection of visual attributes such as pattern, color, and orientation is manifested by ERPs arising from the geniculostriate-inferotemporal projection system. The present article examines the empirical basis for anatomically-specific hypotheses and considers alternative explanations for the observed ERP changes during selective attention.