Capacity limits of information processing in the brain

Despite the impressive complexity and processing power of the human brain, it is severely capacity limited. Behavioral research has highlighted three major bottlenecks of information processing that can cripple our ability to consciously perceive, hold in mind, and act upon the visual world, illustr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in cognitive sciences 2005-06, Vol.9 (6), p.296-305
Main Authors: Marois, René, Ivanoff, Jason
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Attention - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Blinking - physiology
Brain - physiology
Cognition - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Despite the impressive complexity and processing power of the human brain, it is severely capacity limited. Behavioral research has highlighted three major bottlenecks of information processing that can cripple our ability to consciously perceive, hold in mind, and act upon the visual world, illustrated by the attentional blink (AB), visual short-term memory (VSTM), and psychological refractory period (PRP) phenomena, respectively. A review of the neurobiological literature suggests that the capacity limit of VSTM storage is primarily localized to the posterior parietal and occipital cortex, whereas the AB and PRP are associated with partly overlapping fronto-parietal networks. The convergence of these two networks in the lateral frontal cortex points to this brain region as a putative neural locus of a common processing bottleneck for perception and action.
ISSN:1364-6613
1879-307X
DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2005.04.010