As a child grows up, the body schema adjusts to the changing body, but its adaptability has limits.

Attention is the selective enhancement of some signals over others, such that the brain’s resources are strategically deployed.

The brain needs to control its attention, just as it controls the body.

In control theory, if a machine is to control something optimally, it needs a working model of whatever it’s controlling. The brain certainly follows this principle in controlling the body.

Just as the body schema is a surreal description of the body, so the attention schema would be a surreal description of attention.

This is called the attention schema theory, a theory that my lab has been developing and testing experimentally for the past five years. It’s a theory of why we insist with such certainty that we have subjective experience. Attention is fundamental.

Only when the target was comparatively easy to find did the volunteers mention it first, Dr. Elsner said.

When one eye is patched, the visual cortex compensates for the limited input by increasing its activity level

Alessandro Sale asked 20 adults to watch a movie with one eye patched while relaxing in a chair. Later, the participants exercised on a stationary bike for 10-minute intervals while watching a movie.

The differences in strength between the eyes were more pronounced after exercise

“Counterterrorism tries to do two things,” explained Professor Max Abrahms, a political scientist at Northeastern University who studies terrorism. “You try to neutralize existing terrorists and you try to not breed new ones. The surest way to breed new ones is if you’re indiscriminate—for instance, punishing non-violent, moderate Muslims.”