Figure 2.
Left: One of the most common neural measures of attention is the modulation of overall levels of activity in selective brain regions, whether firing rates in single neurons or BOLD signal in fMRI. Right: An alternative measure of attention is pattern stability — similar patterns of activity in a brain region across two or more instances of the same attentional state, and more distinct patterns of activity for different attentional states. The colored squares indicate the level of activity in nine voxels (or nine neurons).