Orienting and Focusing in Voluntary and Involuntary Visuospatial Attention Conditions

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Jianhui Wu ◽  
Shimin Fu ◽  
Yuejia Luo
Keyword(s):  
Gain Control ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Involuntary Attention ◽  
Attention Condition ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measurements in a peripherally cued line-orientation discrimination task to investigate the underlying mechanisms of orienting and focusing in voluntary and involuntary attention conditions. Informative peripheral cue (75% valid) with long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was used in the voluntary attention condition; uninformative peripheral cue (50% valid) with short SOA was used in the involuntary attention condition. Both orienting and focusing were affected by attention type. Results for attention orienting in the voluntary attention condition confirmed the “sensory gain control theory,” as attention enhanced the amplitude of the early ERP components, P1 and N1, without latency changes. In the involuntary attention condition, compared with invalid trials, targets in the valid trials elicited larger and later contralateral P1 components, and smaller and later contralateral N1 components. Furthermore, but only in the voluntary attention condition, targets in the valid trials elicited larger N2 and P3 components than in the invalid trials. Attention focusing in the involuntary attention condition resulted in larger P1 components elicited by targets in small-cue trials compared to large-cue trials, whereas in the voluntary attention condition, larger P1 components were elicited by targets in large-cue trials than in small-cue trials. There was no interaction between orienting and focusing. These results suggest that orienting and focusing of visual-spatial attention are deployed independently regardless of attention type. In addition, the present results provide evidence of dissociation between voluntary and involuntary attention during the same task.

scholarly journals Characterizing pinprick-evoked brain potentials before and after experimentally induced secondary hyperalgesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (5) ◽  
pp. 2672-2681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuel N. van den Broeke ◽  
André Mouraux ◽  
Antonia H. Groneberg ◽  
Doreen B. Pfau ◽  
Rolf-Detlef Treede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Secondary Hyperalgesia ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Nociceptive Pathways ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Pain Ratings ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Positive Complex ◽  
Stimulation Of

Secondary hyperalgesia is believed to be a key feature of “central sensitization” and is characterized by enhanced pain to mechanical nociceptive stimuli. The aim of the present study was to characterize, using EEG, the effects of pinprick stimulation intensity on the magnitude of pinprick-elicited brain potentials [event-related potentials (ERPs)] before and after secondary hyperalgesia induced by intradermal capsaicin in humans. Pinprick-elicited ERPs and pinprick-evoked pain ratings were recorded in 19 healthy volunteers, with mechanical pinprick stimuli of varying intensities (0.25-mm probe applied with a force extending between 16 and 512 mN). The recordings were performed before (T0) and 30 min after (T1) intradermal capsaicin injection. The contralateral noninjected arm served as control. ERPs elicited by stimulation of untreated skin were characterized by 1) an early-latency negative-positive complex peaking between 120 and 250 ms after stimulus onset (N120-P240) and maximal at the vertex and 2) a long-lasting positive wave peaking 400–600 ms after stimulus onset and maximal more posterior (P500), which was correlated to perceived pinprick pain. After capsaicin injection, pinprick stimuli were perceived as more intense in the area of secondary hyperalgesia and this effect was stronger for lower compared with higher stimulus intensities. In addition, there was an enhancement of the P500 elicited by stimuli of intermediate intensity, which was significant for 64 mN. The other components of the ERPs were unaffected by capsaicin. Our results suggest that the increase in P500 magnitude after capsaicin is mediated by facilitated mechanical nociceptive pathways.

Abnormal auditory N400 in a case of zolpidem dependence, during a working memory test

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis A. Liappas ◽  
Charalabos C. Papageorgiou ◽  
Andreas D. Rabavilas
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Context Processing ◽  
Gaba A ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
N400 Component ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Term Management

AbstractZolpidem is a GABA (A) agonist, which is indicated for the short-term management of insomnia. Recent research provide evidence suggesting that zolpidem produces spatial working memory (WM) deficits and dependence; however, the underlying mechanisms of these effects are unknown. Since the auditory N400 component of event-related potentials (ERPS) is considered as an index of memory use of context processing, the present study focused on N400 waveform of ERPs elicited during a WM task in a case suffering from zolpidem dependence. The patterns of N400 waveform of this case were compared to the patterns obtained from healthy controls. This comparison revealed that zolpidem dependence is accompanied by reduced amplitudes located at posterior brain areas and diffuse prolongation of N400. These findings may indicate that zolpidem dependence manifests alterations with regard to the memory use of context processing, involving or affecting a wide-ranging network of the brain's structures.

scholarly journals Posttraining Sleep Enhances Automaticity in Perceptual Discrimination

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercedes Atienza ◽  
Jose L. Cantero ◽  
Robert Stickgold
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Perceptual Discrimination ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
Cortical Dynamics ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Related Potentials

Perceptual learning can develop over extended periods, with slow, at times sleep-dependent, improvement seen several days after training. As a result, performance can become more automatic, that is, less dependent on voluntary attention. This study investigates whether the brain correlates of this enhancement of automaticity are sleep-dependent. Event-related potentials produced in response to complex auditory stimuli were recorded while subjects' attention was focused elsewhere. We report here that following training on an auditory discrimination task, performance continued to improve, without significant further training, for 72 hr. At the same time, several event-related potential components became evident 48–72 hr after training. Posttraining sleep deprivation prevented neither the continued performance improvement nor the slow development of cortical dynamics related to an enhanced familiarity with the task. However, those brain responses associated with the automatic shift of attention to unexpected stimuli failed to develop. Thus, in this auditory learning paradigm, posttraining sleep appears to reduce the voluntary attentional effort required for successful perceptual discrimination by facilitating the intrusion of a potentially meaningful stimulus into one's focus of attention for further evaluation.

Dissecting Cognitive Operations in Difficult Visual Search Using Response-locked Posterior Contralateral Negativity Event-related Potentials

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 703-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandi Lee Drisdelle ◽  
Pierre Jolicoeur
Keyword(s):  
Search Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Peak Amplitude ◽  
Onset Latency ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Response Alternatives

We bisected the sequence of processing into operations taking place before or after the engagement of visual–spatial attention during a difficult search task using event-related potentials. We were able to assign variance in RTs associated with experimental factor effects to phases of processing by examining stimulus-locked (SLpcN) and response-locked (RLpcN) posterior contralateral negativity. Participants searched for a gray square with one gap among gray squares with two gaps. The number of displayed items (set size) and the number of response alternatives were varied. Both experimental manipulations affected the onset latency of the RLpcN, whereas the SLpcN showed small or no latency effects, suggesting they had effects after the initial deployment of attention. Moreover, amplitude effects in the RLpcN and SLpcN behaved similarly. Most importantly, different aspects of the RLpcN dissociated the experimental manipulations: Set size primarily affected processing between RLpcN onset and peak amplitude of the RLpcN, whereas the number of response alternatives affected the onset latency and the latency of peak amplitude of RLpcN. These results show how RLpcN activity can dissociate factor effects that are not separable with SLpcN activity during difficult search.

Duration Estimation of Angry and Neutral Faces: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 254-278
Author(s):  
Lisa V. Eberhardt ◽  
Ferdinand Pittino ◽  
Anna Scheins ◽  
Anke Huckauf ◽  
Markus Kiefer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Early Posterior Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Offset ◽  
Duration Estimation

Abstract Emotional stimuli like emotional faces have been frequently shown to be temporally overestimated compared to neutral ones. This effect has been commonly explained by induced arousal caused by emotional processing leading to the acceleration of an inner-clock-like pacemaker. However, there are some studies reporting contradictory effects and others point to relevant moderating variables. Given this controversy, we aimed at investigating the processes underlying the temporal overestimation of emotional faces by combining behavioral and electrophysiological correlates in a temporal bisection task. We assessed duration estimation of angry and neutral faces using anchor durations of 400 ms and 1600 ms while recording event-related potentials. Subjective ratings and the early posterior negativity confirmed encoding and processing of stimuli’s emotionality. However, temporal ratings did not differ between angry and neutral faces. In line with this behavioral result, the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), an electrophysiological index of temporal accumulation, was not modulated by the faces’ emotionality. Duration estimates, i.e., short or long responses toward stimuli of ambiguous durations of 1000 ms, were nevertheless associated with a differential CNV amplitude. Interestingly, CNV modulation was already observed at 600–700 ms after stimulus onset, i.e., long before stimulus offset. The results are discussed in light of the information-processing model of time perception as well as regarding possible factors of the experimental setup moderating temporal overestimation of emotional stimuli. In sum, combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures seems promising to more clearly understand the complex processes leading to the illusion of temporal lengthening of emotional faces.

Comparison of Early Cortical Networks in Efficient and Inefficient Visual Search: An Event-Related Potential Study

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1039-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Leonards ◽  
Julie Palix ◽  
Christoph Michel ◽  
Vicente Ibanez
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Temporal Correlation ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Search Display ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Cortical Networks ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have indicated that efficient feature search (FS) and inefficient conjunction search (CS) activate partially distinct frontoparietal cortical networks. However, it remains a matter of debate whether the differences in these networks reflect differences in the early processing during FS and CS. In addition, the relationship between the differences in the networks and spatial shifts of attention also remains unknown. We examined these issues by applying a spatio-temporal analysis method to high-resolution visual event-related potentials (ERPs) and investigated how spatio-temporal activation patterns differ for FS and CS tasks. Within the first 450 msec after stimulus onset, scalp potential distributions (ERP maps) revealed 7 different electric field configurations for each search task. Configuration changes occurred simultaneously in the two tasks, suggesting that contributing processes were not significantly delayed in one task compared to the other. Despite this high spatial and temporal correlation, two ERP maps (120–190 and 250–300 msec) differed between the FS and CS. Lateralized distributions were observed only in the ERP map at 250–300 msec for the FS. This distribution corresponds to that previously described as the N2pc component (a negativity in the time range of the N2 complex over posterior electrodes of the hemisphere contralateral to the target hemifield), which has been associated with the focusing of attention onto potential target items in the search display. Thus, our results indicate that the cortical networks involved in feature and conjunction searching partially differ as early as 120 msec after stimulus onset and that the differences between the networks employed during the early stages of FS and CS are not necessarily caused by spatial attention shifts.

Intermodal Compensatory Effects in a Visual Search Task with Congenitally Deaf Adults

Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 147-147
Author(s):  
P Stivalet ◽  
Y Moreno ◽  
C Cian ◽  
J Richard ◽  
P-A Barraud
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Search Pattern ◽  
York Academy ◽  
Related Potentials

In a visual search paradigm we measured the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between a stimulus and a mask that was required to reach 90% correct responses. This procedure has the advantage of taking into account the real processing time and excluding the time for the generation of the motor response. Twelve congenitally deaf adult subjects and twelve normal subjects were given a visual search task for a target letter O among a varying number of distractor letters Q and vice-versa. In both groups we found the asymmetrical visual search pattern classically observed with parallel processing for the search for the target Q and with serial processing for the search for the target O (Treisman, 1985 Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing31 156 – 177). The difference between the mean search slopes for an O target was not statistically significant between the groups; this might be due to the variability within the groups. The visual search amidst the congenitally deaf does not seem to benefit from a compensatory effect in relation to the acoustic deprivation. Our results seem to confirm data reported by Neville (1990 Annals of the New York Academy of Science 71 – 91) obtained by an electrophysiological technique based on event-related potentials. Nevertheless, the deaf subjects were 2.5 times faster at the visual search task.

scholarly journals Frontal and Parietal Components of a Cerebral Network Mediating Voluntary Attention to Novel Events

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Daffner ◽  
L. F. M. Scinto ◽  
A. M. Weitzman ◽  
R. Faust ◽  
D. M. Rentz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Parietal Lobes ◽  
Novelty P3 ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
P3 Amplitude

Despite the important role that attending to novel events plays in human behavior, there is limited information about the neuroanatomical underpinnings of this vital activity. This study investigated the relative contributions of the frontal and posterior parietal lobes to the differential processing of novel and target stimuli under an experimental condition in which subjects actively directed attention to novel events. Event-related potentials were recorded from well-matched frontal patients, parietal patients, and non-brain-injured subjects who controlled their viewing duration (by button press) of line drawings that included a frequent, repetitive background stimulus, an infrequent target stimulus, and infrequent, novel visual stimuli. Subjects also responded to target stimuli by pressing a foot pedal. Damage to the frontal cortex resulted in a much greater disruption of response to novel stimuli than to designated targets. Frontal patients exhibited a widely distributed, profound reduction of the novelty P3 response and a marked diminution of the viewing duration of novel events. In contrast, damage to posterior parietal lobes was associated with a substantial reduction of both target P3 and novelty P3 amplitude; however, there was less disruption of the processing of novel than of target stimuli. We conclude that two nodes of the neuroanatomical network for responding to and processing novelty are the prefrontal and posterior parietal regions, which participate in the voluntary allocation of attention to novel events. Injury to this network is indexed by reduced novelty P3 amplitude, which is tightly associated with diminished attention to novel stimuli. The prefrontal cortex may serve as the central node in determining the allocation of attentional resources to novel events, whereas the posterior parietal lobe may provide the neural substrate for the dynamic process of updating one's internal model of the environment to take into account a novel event.

Event-Related Potentials in Young and Elderly Adults during a Visual Spatial Working Memory Task

2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verner Knott ◽  
Anne Millar ◽  
Louise Dulude ◽  
Lisa Bradford ◽  
Fahad Alwahhabi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Elderly Adults ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory

scholarly journals Effects of Attention on Neuroelectric Correlates of Auditory Stream Segregation

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel S. Snyder ◽  
Claude Alain ◽  
Terence W. Picton
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Auditory Stream ◽  
Auditory Stream Segregation ◽  
Auditory Evoked Response ◽  
Related Potentials

A general assumption underlying auditory scene analysis is that the initial grouping of acoustic elements is independent of attention. The effects of attention on auditory stream segregation were investigated by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants either attended to sound stimuli and indicated whether they heard one or two streams or watched a muted movie. The stimuli were pure-tone ABA-patterns that repeated for 10.8 sec with a stimulus onset asynchrony between A and B tones of 100 msec in which the A tone was fixed at 500 Hz, the B tone could be 500, 625, 750, or 1000 Hz, and was a silence. In both listening conditions, an enhancement of the auditory-evoked response (P1-N1-P2 and N1c) to the B tone varied with f and correlated with perception of streaming. The ERP from 150 to 250 msec after the beginning of the repeating ABA-patterns became more positive during the course of the trial and was diminished when participants ignored the tones, consistent with behavioral studies indicating that streaming takes several seconds to build up. The N1c enhancement and the buildup over time were larger at right than left temporal electrodes, suggesting a right-hemisphere dominance for stream segregation. Sources in Heschl's gyrus accounted for the ERP modulations related to f-based segregation and buildup. These findings provide evidence for two cortical mechanisms of streaming: automatic segregation of sounds and attention-dependent buildup process that integrates successive tones within streams over several seconds.

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