[Alertness and attention: recent theoretical perspectives and new areas of exploration (author's transl)]

Long considered only under the aspects of a level of alertness, attention has also to be considered under its directional aspects which imply attentive focalization and selection of information. The present paper reviews data and hypotheses concerning attention as a level of alertness, selective attention, slow cortical phenomena (negative contingent variation and evoked potentials), and attention as a motor program.