scholarly journals Visual attention spreads broadly but selects information locally

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Shioiri ◽  
Hajime Honjyo ◽  
Yoshiyuki Kashiwase ◽  
Kazumichi Matsumiya ◽  
Ichiro Kuriki
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Spatial Spread ◽  
Local Selection ◽  
Unified View ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
P3 Component

Abstract Visual attention spreads over a range around the focus as the spotlight metaphor describes. Spatial spread of attentional enhancement and local selection/inhibition are crucial factors determining the profile of the spatial attention. Enhancement and ignorance/suppression are opposite effects of attention, and appeared to be mutually exclusive. Yet, no unified view of the factors has been provided despite their necessity for understanding the functions of spatial attention. This report provides electroencephalographic and behavioral evidence for the attentional spread at an early stage and selection/inhibition at a later stage of visual processing. Steady state visual evoked potential showed broad spatial tuning whereas the P3 component of the event related potential showed local selection or inhibition of the adjacent areas. Based on these results, we propose a two-stage model of spatial attention with broad spread at an early stage and local selection at a later stage.

Visual Spatial Attention in Migraine Sufferers in Postictal and Interictal Phases: An Event-Related Potential Study

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.H. de Koning ◽  
J.C. Woestenburg ◽  
M. Elton
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Migraine Attack ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Significant Enhancement ◽  
Pathophysiological Mechanism ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Migraineurs with and without aura (MWAs and MWOAs) as well as controls were measured twice with an interval of 7 days. The first session of recordings and tests for migraineurs was held about 7 hours after a migraine attack. We hypothesized that electrophysiological changes in the posterior cerebral cortex related to visual spatial attention are influenced by the level of arousal in migraineurs with aura, and that this varies over the course of time. ERPs related to the active visual attention task manifested significant differences between controls and both types of migraine sufferers for the N200, suggesting a common pathophysiological mechanism for migraineurs. Furthermore, migraineurs without aura (MWOAs) showed a significant enhancement for the N200 at the second session, indicating the relevance of time of measurement within migraine studies. Finally, migraineurs with aura (MWAs) showed significantly enhanced P240 and P300 components at central and parietal cortical sites compared to MWOAs and controls, which seemed to be maintained over both sessions and could be indicative of increased noradrenergic activity in MWAs.

scholarly journals Covert spatial attention speeds target individuation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Foster ◽  
Emma M. Bsales ◽  
Edward Awh
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Object Representation ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Object Representations ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Object Individuation

AbstractCovert spatial attention has long been thought to speed visual processing. Psychophysics studies have shown that target information accrues faster at attended locations than at unattended locations. However, with behavioral evidence alone, it is difficult to determine whether attention speeds visual processing of the target, or subsequent post-perceptual stages of processing (e.g. decision making and response selection). Moreover, while many studies have shown that that attention can boost the amplitude of visually-evoked neural responses, no effect has been observed on the latency of those neural responses. Here, we offer new evidence that may reconcile the neural and behavioral findings. Our study focused on the N2pc, an EEG marker of visual selection that has been linked with object individuation – the formation of an object representation that is distinct from the background and from other objects. In two experiments, we manipulated whether or not covert attention was precisely deployed to the location of an impending search target. We found that the target-evoked N2pc onset approximately 20 ms earlier when the target location was cued than when it was not cued. Thus, although attention may not speed the earliest stages of sensory processing, attention does speed the critical transition between raw sensory encoding and the formation of individuated object representations.Significance StatementCovert spatial attention improves processing at attended locations. Past behavioral studies have shown that information about visual targets accrues faster at attended than at unattended locations. However, it has remained unclear whether attention speeds perceptual analysis or subsequent post-perceptual stages of processing. Here we present robust evidence that attention speeds the N2pc, an electrophysiological signal that indexes the formation of individuated object representations. Our findings show that attention speeds a relatively early stage of perceptual processing, while also elucidating the specific perceptual process that is speeded.

scholarly journals The hierarchical sensitivity to social misalignment during decision-making under uncertainty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongling Lin ◽  
Ruolei Gu ◽  
Shenghua Luan ◽  
Li Hu ◽  
Shaozheng Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Decision Making Under Uncertainty ◽  
Hierarchical Processing ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Initial Preference ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
P3 Component

Abstract Social misalignment occurs when a person’s attitudes and opinions deviate from those of others. We investigated how individuals react to social misalignment in risky (outcome probabilities are known) or ambiguous (outcome probabilities are unknown) decision contexts. During each trial, participants played a forced-choice gamble, and they observed the decisions of four other players after they made a tentative decision, followed by an opportunity to keep or change their initial decision. Behavioral and event-related potential data were collected. Behaviorally, the stronger the participants’ initial preference, the less likely they were to switch their decisions, whereas the more their decisions were misaligned with the majority, the more likely they were to switch. Electrophysiological results showed a hierarchical processing pattern of social misalignment. Misalignment was first detected binarily (i.e. match/mismatch) at an early stage, as indexed by the N1 component. During the second stage, participants became sensitive to low levels of misalignment, which were indexed by the feedback-related negativity. The degree of social misalignment was processed in greater detail, as indexed by the P3 component. Moreover, such hierarchical neural sensitivity is generalizable across different decision contexts (i.e. risky and ambiguous). These findings demonstrate a fine-grained neural sensitivity to social misalignment during decision-making under uncertainty.

scholarly journals Does Creativity Influence Visual Perception? - An Event-Related Potential Study With Younger and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Csizmadia ◽  
István Czigler ◽  
Boglárka Nagy ◽  
Zsófia Anna Gaál
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Creative Group

We do not know enough about the cognitive background of creativity despite its significance. Using an active oddball paradigm with unambiguous and ambiguous portrait paintings as the standard stimuli, our aim was to examine whether: creativity in the figural domain influences the perception of visual stimuli; any stages of visual processing; or if healthy aging has an effect on these processes. We investigated event related potentials (ERPs) and applied ERP decoding analyses in four groups: younger less creative; younger creative; older less creative; and older creative adults. The early visual processing did not differ between creativity groups. In the later ERP stages the amplitude for the creative compared with the less creative groups was larger between 300 and 500 ms. The stimuli types were clearly distinguishable: within the 300–500 ms range the amplitude was larger for ambiguous rather than unambiguous paintings, but this difference in the traditional ERP analysis was only observable in the younger, not elderly groups, who also had this difference when using decoding analysis. Our results could not prove that visual creativity influences the early stage of perception, but showed creativity had an effect on stimulus processing in the 300–500 ms range, in indexing differences in top-down control, and having more flexible cognitive control in the younger creative group.

Adaptation to Frequent Conflict in the Eriksen Flanker Task

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Purmann ◽  
Stephanie Badde ◽  
Aquiles Luna-Rodriguez ◽  
Mike Wendt
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Conflict Adaptation ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Conflict Frequency

We examined adaptation to frequent conflict in a flanker task using event-related potentials (ERPs). A prominent model of cognitive control suggests the fronto-central N2 as an indicator of conflict monitoring. Based on this model we predicted (1) an increased N2 amplitude for incompatible compared to compatible stimuli and (2) that this difference in N2 amplitude would be less pronounced under conditions of frequent conflict (high cognitive control). In this model, adaptation to frequent conflict is implemented as modulation of early visual processing. Traditionally, variations in processing selectivity in the flanker task have been related to a zoom lens model of visual attention. Therefore, we further predicted (3) effects of conflict frequency on early visual ERP components of the event-related potential, and (4) generalization of conflict adaptation due to increased conflict frequency in the flanker task to other visuospatial tasks, intermixed within flanker task trials. Frequent conflict was associated with reduced flanker interference in response times (RTs) and error rate. Consistent with the literature, amplitude of the fronto-central N2 was larger and latency of the central P3 longer for incompatible stimuli. Both effects were smaller when conflict was frequent, supporting the notion of fronto-central N2 as indicator of conflict monitoring. Neither amplitude nor latency of the posterior P1, as index of early visual processing, was modulated by conflict frequency. Additionally, conflict frequency in the flanker task did not affect the pattern of RTs in a probe task. In sum, our results suggest that conflict adaptation operates in a task-specific manner and does not necessarily alter early information processing, that is, the spatial focus of visual attention.

scholarly journals A Direct Comparison of Spatial Attention and Stimulus–Response Compatibility between Mice and Humans

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ulf H. Schnabel ◽  
Tobias Van der Bijl ◽  
Pieter R. Roelfsema ◽  
Jeannette A. M. Lorteije
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Response Compatibility ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Stimulus Response Compatibility ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Higher Cognitive Functions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Speed Accuracy

Mice are becoming an increasingly popular model for investigating the neural substrates of visual processing and higher cognitive functions. To validate the translation of mouse visual attention and sensorimotor processing to humans, we compared their performance in the same visual task. Mice and human participants judged the orientation of a grating presented on either the right or left side in the visual field. To induce shifts of spatial attention, we varied the stimulus probability on each side. As expected, human participants showed faster RTs and a higher accuracy for the side with a higher probability, a well-established effect of visual attention. The attentional effect was only present in mice when their response was slow. Although the task demanded a judgment of grating orientation, the accuracy of the mice was strongly affected by whether the side of the stimulus corresponded to the side of the behavioral response. This stimulus–response compatibility (Simon) effect was much weaker in humans and only significant for their fastest responses. Both species exhibited a speed–accuracy trade-off in their responses, because slower responses were more accurate than faster responses. We found that mice typically respond very fast, which contributes to the stronger stimulus–response compatibility and weaker attentional effects, which were only apparent in the trials with slowest responses. Humans responded slower and had stronger attentional effects, combined with a weak influence of stimulus–response compatibility, which was only apparent in trials with fast responses. We conclude that spatial attention and stimulus–response compatibility influence the responses of humans and mice but that strategy differences between species determine the dominance of these effects.

scholarly journals An ERP study on facial emotion processing in young people with subjective memory complaints

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanesa Perez ◽  
Ruth Garrido-Chaves ◽  
Mario Perez-Alarcón ◽  
Tiago O. Paiva ◽  
Matias M. Pulopulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Subjective Memory Complaints ◽  
Subjective Memory ◽  
Memory Complaints ◽  
Facial Emotion Processing

AbstractSubjective memory complaints (SMCs) are commonly related to aging, but they are also presented by young adults. Their neurophysiological mechanisms are not thoroughly understood, although some aspects related to affective state have been mentioned. Here, we investigated whether facial emotion processing is different in young people with (n = 41) and without (n = 39) SMCs who were exposed to positive, negative, and neutral faces, by recording the event-related potential (ERP) activity. From the ERP activity, the N170 (an index of face processing) and the LPP (an index of motivated attention) components were extracted. Regarding the N170, results showed less amplitude for positive and neutral faces in the participants with SMCs than in those without SMCs. Moreover, women with SMCs displayed longer latencies for neutral faces than women without SMCs. No significant differences were found between the groups in the LPP component. Together, our findings suggest deficits in an early stage of facial emotion processing in young people with SMCs, and they emphasize the importance of further examining affective dimensions.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological evidence of different neural processing between visual and audiovisual inhibition of return

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Tang ◽  
Xueli Wang ◽  
Xing Peng ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Chi Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Electrophysiological Evidence ◽  
P3 Component

AbstractInhibition of return (IOR) refers to the slower response to targets appearing on the same side as the cue (valid locations) than to targets appearing on the opposite side as the cue (invalid locations). Previous behaviour studies have found that the visual IOR is larger than the audiovisual IOR when focusing on both visual and auditory modalities. Utilising the high temporal resolution of the event-related potential (ERP) technique we explored the possible neural correlates with the behaviour IOR difference between visual and audiovisual targets. The behavioural results revealed that the visual IOR was larger than the audiovisual IOR. The ERP results showed that the visual IOR effect was generated from the P1 and N2 components, while the audiovisual IOR effect was derived only from the P3 component. Multisensory integration (MSI) of audiovisual targets occurred on the P1, N1 and P3 components, which may offset the reduced perceptual processing due to audiovisual IOR. The results of early and late differences in the neural processing of the visual IOR and audiovisual IOR imply that the two target types may have different inhibitory orientation mechanisms.

scholarly journals Sustained Splits of Attention within versus across Visual Hemifields Produce Distinct Spatial Gain Profiles

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Walter ◽  
Christian Keitel ◽  
Matthias M. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Lower Visual Field ◽  
Light Emitting ◽  
Visual Hemifield ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Visual Cortices ◽  
Cortical Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Hemifields

Visual attention can be focused concurrently on two stimuli at noncontiguous locations while intermediate stimuli remain ignored. Nevertheless, behavioral performance in multifocal attention tasks falters when attended stimuli fall within one visual hemifield as opposed to when they are distributed across left and right hemifields. This “different-hemifield advantage” has been ascribed to largely independent processing capacities of each cerebral hemisphere in early visual cortices. Here, we investigated how this advantage influences the sustained division of spatial attention. We presented six isoeccentric light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the lower visual field, each flickering at a different frequency. Participants attended to two LEDs that were spatially separated by an intermediate LED and responded to synchronous events at to-be-attended LEDs. Task-relevant pairs of LEDs were either located in the same hemifield (“within-hemifield” conditions) or separated by the vertical meridian (“across-hemifield” conditions). Flicker-driven brain oscillations, steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), indexed the allocation of attention to individual LEDs. Both behavioral performance and SSVEPs indicated enhanced processing of attended LED pairs during “across-hemifield” relative to “within-hemifield” conditions. Moreover, SSVEPs demonstrated effective filtering of intermediate stimuli in “across-hemifield” condition only. Thus, despite identical physical distances between LEDs of attended pairs, the spatial profiles of gain effects differed profoundly between “across-hemifield” and “within-hemifield” conditions. These findings corroborate that early cortical visual processing stages rely on hemisphere-specific processing capacities and highlight their limiting role in the concurrent allocation of visual attention to multiple locations.

Computing with Self-Excitatory Cliques: A Model and an Application to Hyperacuity-Scale Computation in Visual Cortex

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Miller ◽  
Steven W. Zucker
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Cortical Cell ◽  
Pyramidal Cells ◽  
Direct Calculation ◽  
Formal Theory ◽  
Cortical Cells ◽  
Cell Counts ◽  
Spatiotemporal Response

We present a model of visual computation based on tightly inter-connected cliques of pyramidal cells. It leads to a formal theory of cell assemblies, a specific relationship between correlated firing patterns and abstract functionality, and a direct calculation relating estimates of cortical cell counts to orientation hyperacuity. Our network architecture is unique in that (1) it supports a mode of computation that is both reliable and efficent; (2) the current-spike relations are modeled as an analog dynamical system in which the requisite computations can take place on the time scale required for an early stage of visual processing; and (3) the dynamics are triggered by the spatiotemporal response of cortical cells. This final point could explain why moving stimuli improve vernier sensitivity.

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