Selective visual attention in a neurocomputational model of phase oscillators

In order to understand the dynamic property of covert selective visual atte ntion, which is different from the proposed mechanism of the spotlight meta phor, a two-layered network of phase oscillators was developed. The first l ayer is related to the hippocampus and controls attention focus formation. The second layer is related to the visual cortex, and each cortical oscilla tor in it simulates an assembly of cells coding for a particular stimulus i n the sense of feature binding. Selective visual attention is interpreted a s the result of the emergent synchronization of hippocampus oscillators and a part of cortical oscillators. Numerical experiments are presented to ill ustrate attention focus formation and attention shifting from one set of st imuli to another. From a neurocomputational point of view, our results demo nstrate that attention is an emergent property of the dynamical cell assemb lies responding to the whole visual field.