Microelectrode recordings from behaving monkeys have shown that neuron
al responses in the visual cerebral cortex can depend greatly on which
aspect of the scene is the target of the animal's attention. Accumula
ting evidence suggests that while the early stages of the visual pathw
ay provide a faithful representation of the retinal image, later stage
s of processing in the visual cortex hold representations that emphasi
ze the viewer's current interest. By filtering out irrelevant signals
and adding information about objects whose presence is remembered or i
nferred, the cortex creates an edited representation of the visual wor
ld that is dynamically modified to suit the immediate goals of the vie
wer.