Componential Granger causality, and its application to identifying the source and mechanisms of the top–down biased activation that controls attention to affective vs sensory processing

Functions of the anterior insula in taste, autonomic, and related functions

“…The source of the top-down modulation by attention of the orbitofrontal cortex appears to be the lateral prefrontal cortex, as shown by PPI (psychophysiological interaction) analyses , and by Granger causality analyses (Ge, Feng, Grabenhorst, & Rolls, 2012;Luo, Ge, Grabenhorst, Feng, & Rolls, 2013). The mechanism probably involves a weak top-down biased competition effect on the taste and olfactory processing (Deco & Rolls, 2005;Desimone & Duncan, 1995;Rolls, 2008bRolls, , 2013.…”

“…Because whole streams of cortical processing are influenced (orbitofrontal and cingulate cortex, and even their coupling to the primary taste cortex, by pleasantness-related processing; and insular taste cortex and the mid-insula by intensity-related processing Luo et al, 2013)), the process has been described as a biased activation model of attention Rolls, 2013). This differential biasing by prefrontal cortex attentional mechanisms (Ge et al, 2012;) of brain regions engaged in processing a sensory stimulus depending on whether the cognitive demand is for affect-related vs more sensory-related processing may be an important aspect of cognition and attention which have implications for how strongly the reward system is driven by food, and thus for eating and the control of appetite Rolls, 2012;. The top-down modulations of processing have many implications for investigations of taste, olfactory, and other sensory processing, and for the development of new food and perfumery products.…”

Taste, olfactory, and food reward value processing in the brain

“…The source of the top-down modulation by attention of the orbitofrontal cortex appears to be the lateral prefrontal cortex, as shown by PPI (psychophysiological interaction) analyses (Grabenhorst and , and by Granger causality analyses (Ge et al, 2012;Luo et al, 2013). The mechanism probably involves a weak top-down biased competition effect on the taste and olfactory processing (Deco and Rolls, 2005a;Desimone and Duncan, 1995;Rolls, 2008aRolls, , 2013.…”

A non-reward attractor theory of depression

“…Further, top-down selective attention can also influence affective representations in the orbitofrontal cortex (Ge et al, 2012;Grabenhorst and Rolls, 2010;Luo et al, 2013;Rolls, 2013a;Rolls et al, 2008a), and paying attention to depressive symptoms when depressed may in this way exacerbate the problems in a positive feedback way. (Top-down attention refers to the process whereby an area such as the prefrontal cortex can hold in short-term memory what it is that attention should enhance, and can then bias 'lower' brain areas to respond more to some properties of what they respond to (Deco and Rolls, 2005a;Desimone and Duncan, 1995;Rolls, 2013aRolls, , 2016aRolls and Deco, 2002).…”