scholarly journals Sensory gain control (amplification) as a mechanism of selective attention: electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence

1998 ◽  
Vol 353 (1373) ◽  
pp. 1257-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Hillyard ◽  
Edward K. Vogel ◽  
Steven J. Luck
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Sensory Pathways ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Behavioral Studies

Both physiological and behavioral studies have suggested that stimulus–driven neural activity in the sensory pathways can be modulated in amplitude during selective attention. Recordings of event–related brain potentials indicate that such sensory gain control or amplification processes play an important role in visual–spatial attention. Combined event–related brain potential and neuroimaging experiments provide strong evidence that attentional gain control operates at an early stage of visual processing in extrastriate cortical areas. These data support early selection theories of attention and provide a basis for distinguishing between separate mechanisms of attentional suppression (of unattended inputs) and attentional facilitation (of attended inputs).

Large-scale Networks for Attentional Biases

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna C. (Kia) Nobre ◽  
M-Marsel Mesulam
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Selective attention is essential for all aspects of cognition. Using the paradigmatic case of visual spatial attention, we present a theoretical account proposing the flexible control of attention through coordinated activity across a large-scale network of brain areas. It reviews evidence supporting top-down control of visual spatial attention by a distributed network, and describes principles emerging from a network approach. Stepping beyond the paradigm of visual spatial attention, we consider attentional control mechanisms more broadly. The chapter suggests that top-down biasing mechanisms originate from multiple sources and can be of several types, carrying information about receptive-field properties such as spatial locations or features of items; but also carrying information about properties that are not easily mapped onto receptive fields, such as the meanings or timings of items. The chapter considers how selective biases can operate on multiple slates of information processing, not restricted to the immediate sensory-motor stream, but also operating within internalized, short-term and long-term memory representations. Selective attention appears to be a general property of information processing systems rather than an independent domain within our cognitive make-up.

Spatiotemporal mapping of human cortical areas involved in visual spatial attention

1997 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. P15
Author(s):  
G.V. Simpson ◽  
J.W. Belliveau ◽  
S.P. Ahlfors ◽  
R.J. Illmoniemi ◽  
J.R. Baker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spatiotemporal Mapping ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Spatial

Dissociating Effects of Movement Preparation and Spatial Attention on Visual Processing: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia Ley ◽  
Brigitte Röder
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Movement Preparation ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Related Potentials

The present study investigated whether effects of movement preparation and visual spatial attention on visual processing can be dissociated. Movement preparation and visual spatial attention were manipulated orthogonally in a dual-task design. Ten participants covertly prepared unimanual lateral arm movements to one hemifield, while attending to visual stimuli presented either in the same or in the hemifield opposite to the movement goal. Event-related potentials to task-irrelevant visual stimuli were analysed. Both joint and distinct modulations of visual ERPs by visual spatial attention and movement preparation were observed: The latencies of all analysed peaks (P1, N1, P2) were shorter for matching (in terms of direction of attention and movement) versus non-matching sensory–motor conditions. The P1 amplitude, as well, depended on the sensory–motor matching: The P1 was larger for non-matching compared to matching conditions. By contrast, the N1 amplitude showed additive effects of sensory attention and movement preparation: with attention and movement preparation directed towards the visual stimulus the N1 was largest, with both directed opposite to the stimulus the N1 was smallest. P2 amplitudes, instead, were only modulated by sensory attention. The present data show that movement preparation and sensory spatial attention are tightly linked and interrelated, showing joint modulations throughout stimulus processing. At the same time, however, our data argue against the idea of identity of the two systems. Instead, sensory spatial attention and movement preparation seem to be processed at least partially independently, though still exerting a combined influence on visual stimulus processing.

Size Inflation in Drawing From Mirror and Proportional Accuracy in Observational Drawing

Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 749-770
Author(s):  
Leon Lou
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Size Constancy ◽  
Image Size ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

In three experiments, a bias to inflate in drawing the proportion of an image on a mirror over the mirror itself is demonstrated in a sample ( N = 146) of undergraduate students taking introductory psychology classes. The inflation is not confined to the image of one’s own head but is likely to occur in depictions of any object from a mirror with the mirror frame included. Having to include in the drawing background objects visible in the mirror is found to reduce the inflation. The inflation also diminishes with a smaller mirror and at a longer viewing distance. An account for the inflation in terms of a mechanism of size constancy contingent on selective attention is offered. The size of the inflation suggests a conflation of the perceived mirror image size with the size of the distal object it signals rather than a complete take-over by the latter. The reduction of the size inflation when participants are asked draw both a target and background objects is more likely a result of the selective attention to proportional relationships in the mirror scene, rather than a manifestation of an evenly scaled visual space under distributed visual spatial attention. The implications of the findings to improving proportional accuracy in observational drawing are discussed.

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.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document