Article

How attention saves energy in vision

2026-03-19

Abstract excerpt

Attention has long been thought to enable efficient vision, 1–8 yet it requires additional neural machinery and energy. Whether attention yields net energetic benefits—after accounting for the cost of control—has never been demonstrated. Here we show that attentional control can substantially improve whole-system energy efficiency in a model of primate visual processing. Our model, EAN (“Energy-efficient Attentio...

Topics

Open a Topic to create a Post that cites this publication.

Identifiers and source

Literature Corpus work: 2085bbcc-e84f-5c0e-9eb3-437d62dc26c9
DOI: 10.64898/2026.03.18.710397

Open publication

Related research

Semantic proximity does not establish scientific evidence.

Click a neighbor to travelStep 1 · 12 closest

How attention saves energy in visionDOI 10.64898/2026.03.18.710397Read

A controller-peripheral architecture and costly energy principle for learningSemantic proximity Read

Neural signatures of associational cortex emerge in a goal-directed model of visual searchSemantic proximity Read

Modeling Attention and Binding in the Brain through Bidirectional Recurrent GatingSemantic proximity Read

The cost of cognition: Measuring the energy consumption of non-equilibrium computationSemantic proximity Read

Attention Improves Population Codes by Warping Neural Manifolds in Human Visual CortexSemantic proximity Read

Sparse mixed codes on shared manifolds for human-like spatial attention in artificial neural networksSemantic proximity Read

Inactivation of primate area V4 reveals inductive biases in visual learningSemantic proximity Read

Feature interference as a neuronal basis for the behavioural cost of task uncertaintySemantic proximity Read

Sharing the Spotlight: Uncovering common attentional dynamics across speciesSemantic proximity Read

A dynamic normalization model of temporal attentionSemantic proximity Read

A Feedforward Convolutional Neural Network Learns from Images to Covertly Attend to Contextual Cues like Human and Bayesian Ideal ObserversSemantic proximity Read

A Stimulus-Computable Model for Audiovisual Perception and Spatial Orienting in MammalsSemantic proximity Read