Spatial attention triggered by eye gaze enhances and speeds up visual processing in upper and lower visual fields beyond early striate visual processing

2005 ◽  
Vol 116 (11) ◽  
pp. 2565-2576 ◽  
Author(s):  
A SCHULLER ◽  
B ROSSION
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Visual Fields

scholarly journals Audio-visual synchrony and spatial attention enhance processing of dynamic visual stimulation independently and in parallel: a frequency-tagging study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amra Covic ◽  
Christian Keitel ◽  
Emanuele Porcu ◽  
Erich Schröger ◽  
Matthias M Müller
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Tone Presentation ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Steady State Responses

ABSTRACTThe neural processing of a visual stimulus can be facilitated by attending to its position or by a co-occurring auditory tone. Using frequency-tagging we investigated whether facilitation by spatial attention and audio-visual synchrony rely on similar neural processes. Participants attended to one of two flickering Gabor patches (14.17 and 17 Hz) located in opposite lower visual fields. Gabor patches further “pulsed” (i.e. showed smooth spatial frequency variations) at distinct rates (3.14 and 3.63 Hz). Frequency-modulating an auditory stimulus at the pulse-rate of one of the visual stimuli established audio-visual synchrony. Flicker and pulsed stimulation elicited stimulus-locked rhythmic electrophysiological brain responses that allowed tracking the neural processing of simultaneously presented stimuli. These steady-state responses (SSRs) were quantified in the spectral domain to examine visual stimulus processing under conditions of synchronous vs. asynchronous tone presentation and when respective stimulus positions were attended vs. unattended. Strikingly, unique patterns of effects on pulse- and flicker driven SSRs indicated that spatial attention and audiovisual synchrony facilitated early visual processing in parallel and via different cortical processes. We found attention effects to resemble the classical top-down gain effect facilitating both, flicker and pulse-driven SSRs. Audio-visual synchrony, in turn, only amplified synchrony-producing stimulus aspects (i.e. pulse-driven SSRs) possibly highlighting the role of temporally co-occurring sights and sounds in bottom-up multisensory integration.

scholarly journals Stimulus-driven brain rhythms within the alpha band: The attentional-modulation conundrum

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Keitel ◽  
Anne Keitel ◽  
Christopher SY Benwell ◽  
Christoph Daube ◽  
Gregor Thut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Visual Evoked Response ◽  
Brain Rhythms ◽  
Inhibitory Function

Two largely independent research lines use rhythmic sensory stimulation to study visual processing. Despite the use of strikingly similar experimental paradigms, they differ crucially in their notion of the stimulus-driven periodic brain responses: One regards them mostly as synchronised (entrained) intrinsic brain rhythms; the other assumes they are predominantly evoked responses (classically termed steady-state responses, or SSRs) that add to the ongoing brain activity. This conceptual difference can produce contradictory predictions about, and interpretations of, experimental outcomes. The effect of spatial attention on brain rhythms in the alpha-band (8-13 Hz) is one such instance: alpha-range SSRs have typically been found to increase in power when participants focus their spatial attention on laterally presented stimuli, in line with a gain control of the visual evoked response. In nearly identical experiments, retinotopic decreases in entrained alpha-band power have been reported, in line with the inhibitory function of intrinsic alpha. Here we reconcile these contradictory findings by showing that they result from a small but far-reaching difference between two common approaches to EEG spectral decomposition. In a new analysis of previously published EEG data, recorded during bilateral rhythmic visual stimulation, we find the typical SSR gain effect when emphasising stimulus-locked neural activity and the typical retinotopic alpha suppression when focusing on ongoing rhythms. These opposite but parallel effects suggest that spatial attention may bias the neural processing of dynamic visual stimulation via two complementary neural mechanisms.

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.

Spatial attention in agenesis of the corpus callosum: shifting attention between visual fields

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1804-1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J Hines ◽  
Lynn K Paul ◽  
Warren S Brown
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Callosum ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Shifting Attention

scholarly journals The Temporal Dynamics of Object Processing in Visual Cortex during the Transition from Distributed to Focused Spatial Attention

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 4094-4105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien-Te Wu ◽  
Melissa E. Libertus ◽  
Karen L. Meyerhoff ◽  
Marty G. Woldorff
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Object Representation ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity

Several major cognitive neuroscience models have posited that focal spatial attention is required to integrate different features of an object to form a coherent perception of it within a complex visual scene. Although many behavioral studies have supported this view, some have suggested that complex perceptual discrimination can be performed even with substantially reduced focal spatial attention, calling into question the complexity of object representation that can be achieved without focused spatial attention. In the present study, we took a cognitive neuroscience approach to this problem by recording cognition-related brain activity both to help resolve the questions about the role of focal spatial attention in object categorization processes and to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms, focusing particularly on the temporal cascade of these attentional and perceptual processes in visual cortex. More specifically, we recorded electrical brain activity in humans engaged in a specially designed cued visual search paradigm to probe the object-related visual processing before and during the transition from distributed to focal spatial attention. The onset times of the color popout cueing information, indicating where within an object array the subject was to shift attention, was parametrically varied relative to the presentation of the array (i.e., either occurring simultaneously or being delayed by 50 or 100 msec). The electrophysiological results demonstrate that some levels of object-specific representation can be formed in parallel for multiple items across the visual field under spatially distributed attention, before focal spatial attention is allocated to any of them. The object discrimination process appears to be subsequently amplified as soon as focal spatial attention is directed to a specific location and object. This set of novel neurophysiological findings thus provides important new insights on fundamental issues that have been long-debated in cognitive neuroscience concerning both object-related processing and the role of attention.

scholarly journals Hemifield-specific control of spatial attention and working memory: Evidence from hemifield crossover costs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger W. Strong ◽  
George Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Memory Experiment ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Spatial Interference ◽  
Visual Hemifields ◽  
Specific Control

Attentional tracking and working memory tasks are often performed better when targets are divided evenly between the left and right visual hemifields, rather than contained within a single hemifield (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2005; Delvenne, 2005). However, this bilateral field advantage does not provide conclusive evidence of hemifield-specific control of attention and working memory, as it can be explained solely from hemifield-limited spatial interference at early stages of visual processing. If control of attention and working memory is specific to each hemifield, maintaining target information should become more difficult as targets move between the two hemifields. Observers in the present study maintained targets that moved either within or between the left and right hemifields, using either attention (Experiment 1) or working memory (Experiment 2). Maintaining spatial information was more difficult when target items moved between the hemifields compared to when target items moved within their original hemifields, consistent with hemifield-specific control of spatial attention and working memory. However, this pattern was not found for maintaining identity information (e.g., color) in working memory (Experiment 3). Together, these results provide evidence that control of spatial attention and working memory is specific to each hemifield, and that hemifield-specific control is a unique signature of spatial processing.

Influence of Gaze Observation on Random Number Generation

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Grade ◽  
Nathalie Lefèvre ◽  
Mauro Pesenti
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Random Number ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Random Number Generation ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Color Changes ◽  
Number Generation ◽  
Number Magnitude ◽  
Large Numbers

Recent findings suggest that number processing is intimately linked to space and attention orienting processes. For example, processing numbers induces shifts of spatial attention, with small numbers causing leftward shifts and large numbers causing rightward shifts, suggesting that number magnitude might be represented on a left-to-right mental number line. However, whether inducing spatial attention shifts would in turn influence number production, and whether such influence, if observed, would be restricted to the left-to-right orientation or would extend to an up-to-down orientation in space, remains a matter of debate. The present study assessed whether observing gaze movements, known to moderate spatial attention, was able to influence a random number generation task, and how different directions of the gaze moderated this influence. Participants were asked to randomly produce a number between 1 and 10 after they observed either a horizontal or a vertical eye gaze, or after they observed color changes as a control condition. The results revealed that number production was influenced by the prior presentation of specific gaze changes. Observing leftward or downward gaze led participants to produce more small than large numbers, whereas observing gaze oriented rightward and upward or observing color changes did not influence the magnitude of the numbers produced. These results show that the characteristics of the observed gaze changes primed number magnitude, but that this only held true for some movements, and these were not restricted to the left-to-right axis.

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