Risto Kalervo Näätänen is a psychological scientist, pioneer in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and known worldwide as one of the discoverers of the electrophysiological mismatch negativity. He has been a much-cited social scientist and one of the few individuals appointed permanent Academy Professor of the Academy of Finland. He retired in 2007, retaining a title of Academy Professor emeritus of the Academy of Finland. Since 2007, he has been a professor at the University of Tartu.

Foreword. Preface. 1. Introduction: What is Attention? 2. Attention and Automaticity in Information Processing 3. Measurement of Brain Activity Underlying Information Processing 4. Event-Related Potentials and Automatic Information Processing 5. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Automatic Processing 6. Attention and Event-Related Potentials 7. MEG Studies of Attention 8. Regional Cerebral Blood-Flow (rCBF) and Metabolic Studies of Selective Attention 9. Concluding Discussion. References. Author Index. Subject Index.