The neural basis of attentional control in visual search

How do we localise and identify target objects among distractors in visual scenes? The role of selective attention in visual search has been studied for decades and the outlines of a general processing model are now beginning to emerge. Attentional processes unfold in real time and this review describes four temporally and functionally dissociable stages of attention in visual search (preparation, guidance, selection, and identification). Insights from neuroscientific studies of visual attention suggest that our ability to find target objects in visual search is based on processes that operate at each of these four stages, in close association with working memory and recurrent feedback mechanisms.