ATTENTION, SELF-REGULATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness has many aspects. These include awareness of the world, feelings of control over one's behaviour and mental state (volition), and the notion of a continuing self. Focal (executive) attention is us ed to control details of our awareness and is thus closely related to volition. Experiments suggest an integrated network of neural areas in volved in executive attention. This network is associated with our vol untary ability to select among competing items, to correct error and t o regulate our emotions. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that thes e Various functions involve separate areas of the anterior cingulate. We have adopted a strategy of using marker tasks, shown to activate th e brain area by imaging studies, as a means of tracing the development of attentional networks. Executive attention appears to develop first to regulate distress during the first year of life. During later chil dhood the ability to regulate conflict among competing stimuli builds upon the earlier cingulate anatomy to provide a means of cognitive con trol. During childhood the activation of cingulate structures relates both to the child's success on laboratory tasks involving conflict and to parental reports of self-regulation and emotional control. These s tudies indicate a start in understanding the anatomy, circuitry and de velopment of executive attention networks that serve to regulate both cognition and emotion.