Attention: The grounds of self-regulated cognition Rueda Cuerva, María Del Rosario Moyano Flores, Pablo Sebastián Rico Picó, Josué Activation Attention Development Executive attention Selection National Research Agency of Spain, Grant/Award Number: PSI2017-82670-P Everyone knows what paying attention is, yet not everybody knows what this means in cognitive and brain function terms. The attentive state can be defined as a state of optimal activation that allows selecting the sources of information and courses of action in order to optimize our interaction with the environment in accordance with either the saliency of the stimulation or internal goals and intentions. In this article we argue that paying attention consists in tuning the mind with the environment in a conscious and controlled mode in order to enable the strategic and flexible adaptation of responses in accordance with internal motivations and goals. We discuss the anatomy and neural mechanisms involved in attention functions and present a brief overview of the neurocognitive development of this seminal cognitive function on the grounds of self-regulated behavior. This article is categorized under: • Psychology > Attention (BEAB) • Brain Function and Dysfunction (BEAC) • Cognitive Development (BAAD) 2021-11-08T13:32:48Z 2021-11-08T13:32:48Z 2021-10-25 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Rueda, M. R., Moyano, S., & Rico-Picó, J. (2021). Attention: The grounds of self-regulated cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, e1582. [https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1582] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/71376 10.1002/wcs.1582 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España John Wiley & Sons