Editing Claustrum (section)

===Attention===
The claustrum has the differential ability to select between task-relevant information and task-irrelevant information to provide directed attention. It contains the highest density of connecting white matter tracts in the cortex. This supports the notion of networking and coordination among different regions of the brain.<ref name="Torgerson2015" /> The claustrum has regional specificity to it; information coming in from visual centers project to specific areas of grey matter neurons in the structure and the auditory cortex.<ref name="Crick2005" /> Unexpected stimuli also activate the claustrum, effecting an immediate focusing or allocation of function. In lower mammals (e.g. rats), claustral regions receive input from somatosensory modalities, such as whiskers' motor control perspective because of its sensory and discriminatory use in these mammals.<ref name="Goll2015" />

Functionally, it is proposed that it segregates attention between these modalities. Attention itself has been considered as top-down processing or bottom-up processing; both fit contextually with what is observed in the claustrum structurally and functionally, supporting the notion that interactions occur with high-order sensory areas involved in encoding objects and features. Input from the prefrontal cortex, for example, will define attention based upon higher-cognitive task-driven behaviour. Moreover, induction of electrical stimulation to the claustrum has been shown to cause inhibition of reading, a blank stare, and unresponsiveness. It has been reported that the claustrum has a basal frequency firing that is modulated to increase or decrease with directed attention. For example, projections to motor and oculomotor areas would assist with gaze movement to direct attention to new stimuli by increasing the firing frequency of claustral neurons.<ref name="Goll2015" />

[[Salvinorin A]], the active hallucinogenic compound found in ''[[Salvia divinorum]]'', is capable of inducing loss of awareness. Consumption of salvinorin A can induce synesthesia, in which different sensory modalities are interpreted by different sensory cortices. (For example: seeing sounds, tasting colours.)  This supports the idea of intrathalamic segregation and conduction (attention). The claustrum has [[Κ-opioid receptor|kappa opioid receptors]] to which Salvinorin A binds, eliciting this effect.<ref name="Chau2015" /><ref name="Goll2015" />