scholarly journals Selection and suppression of visual information in the macaque prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Di Bello ◽  
S. Ben Hadj Hassen ◽  
E. Astrand ◽  
S. Ben Hamed
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractIn everyday life, we are continuously struggling at focusing on our current goals while at the same time avoiding distractions. Attention is the neuro-cognitive process devoted to the selection of behaviorally relevant sensory information while at the same time preventing distraction by irrelevant information. Visual selection can be implemented by both long-term (learning-based spatial prioritization) and short term (dynamic spatial attention) mechanisms. On the other hand, distraction can be prevented proactively, by strategically prioritizing task-relevant information at the expense of irrelevant information, or reactively, by actively suppressing the processing of distractors. The distinctive neuronal signature of each of these four processes is largely unknown. Likewise, how selection and suppression mechanisms interact to drive perception has never been explored neither at the behavioral nor at the neuronal level. Here, we apply machine-learning decoding methods to prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity to monitor dynamic spatial attention with an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. This leads to several novel observations. We first identify independent behavioral and neuronal signatures for learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Second, we identify distinct behavioral and neuronal signatures for proactive and reactive suppression mechanisms. We find that while distracting task-relevant information is suppressed proactively, task-irrelevant information is suppressed reactively. Critically, we show that distractor suppression, whether proactive or reactive, strongly depends on both learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Overall, we thus provide a unified neuro-cognitive framework describing how the prefrontal cortex implements spatial selection and distractor suppression in order to flexibly optimize behavior in dynamic environments.

scholarly journals Prefrontal control of visual distraction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Cosman ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Neural Firing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Irrelevant

SummaryAvoiding distraction by salient irrelevant stimuli is critical to accomplishing daily tasks. Regions of prefrontal cortex control attention by enhancing the representation of task-relevant information in sensory cortex, which can be measured directly in modulation of both single neurons and averaging of the scalp-recorded electroencephalogram [1,2]. However, when irrelevant information is particularly conspicuous, it may distract attention and interfere with the selection of behaviorally relevant information. Many studies have shown that that distraction can be minimized via top-down control [3–5], but the cognitive and neural mechanisms giving rise to this control over distraction remain uncertain and vigorously debated [6–8]. Bridging neurophysiology to electrophysiology, we simultaneously recorded neurons in prefrontal cortex and event-related potentials (ERPs) over extrastriate visual cortex to track the processing of salient distractors during a visual search task. Critically, we observed robust suppression of salient distractor representations in both cortical areas, with suppression arising in prefrontal cortex before being manifest in the ERP signal over extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, only prefrontal neurons that participated in selecting the task-relevant target also showed suppression of the task-irrelevant distractor. This suggests a common prefrontal mechanism for target selection and distractor suppression, with input from prefrontal cortex being responsible for both selecting task-relevant and suppressing task-irrelevant information in sensory cortex. Taken together, our results resolve a long-standing debate over the mechanisms that prevent distraction, and provide the first evidence directly linking suppressed neural firing in prefrontal cortex with surface ERP measures of distractor suppression.

scholarly journals fMRI Studies of Stroop Tasks Reveal Unique Roles of Anterior and Posterior Brain Systems in Attentional Selection

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 988-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie T. Banich ◽  
Michael P. Milham ◽  
Ruthann Atchley ◽  
Neal J. Cohen ◽  
Andrew Webb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Color Word ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Differential Sensitivity ◽  
Attentional Demands ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Word Task ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Stroop Tasks

The brain's attentional system identifies and selects information that is task-relevant while ignoring information that is task-irrelevant. In two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the effects of varying task-relevant information compared to task-irrelevant information. In the first experiment, we compared patterns of activation as attentional demands were increased for two Stroop tasks that differed in the task-relevant information, but not the task-irrelevant information: a color-word task and a spatial-word task. Distinct subdivisions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the precuneus became activated for each task, indicating differential sensitivity of these regions to task-relevant information (e.g., spatial information vs. color). In the second experiment, we compared patterns of activation with increased attentional demands for two Stroop tasks that differed in task-irrelevant information, but not task-relevant information: a color-word task and color-object task. Little differentiation in activation for dorsolateral prefrontal and precuneus regions was observed, indicating a relative insensitivity of these regions to task-irrelevant information. However, we observed a differentiation in the pattern of activity for posterior regions. There were unique areas of activation in parietal regions for the color-word task and in occipito-temporal regions for the color-object task. No increase in activation was observed in regions responsible for processing the perceptual attribute of color. The results of this second experiment indicate that attentional selection in tasks such as the Stroop task, which contain multiple potential sources of relevant information (e.g., the word vs. its ink color), acts more by modulating the processing of task-irrelevant information than by modulating processing of task-relevant information.

scholarly journals The effect of visual salience on memory-based choices

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arezoo Pooresmaeili ◽  
Dominik R. Bach ◽  
Raymond J. Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Visual Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Salience ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Capacity Limitations ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Deciding whether a stimulus is the “same” or “different” from a previous presented one involves integrating among the incoming sensory information, working memory, and perceptual decision making. Visual selective attention plays a crucial role in selecting the relevant information that informs a subsequent course of action. Previous studies have mainly investigated the role of visual attention during the encoding phase of working memory tasks. In this study, we investigate whether manipulation of bottom-up attention by changing stimulus visual salience impacts on later stages of memory-based decisions. In two experiments, we asked subjects to identify whether a stimulus had either the same or a different feature to that of a memorized sample. We manipulated visual salience of the test stimuli by varying a task-irrelevant feature contrast. Subjects chose a visually salient item more often when they looked for matching features and less often so when they looked for a nonmatch. This pattern of results indicates that salient items are more likely to be identified as a match. We interpret the findings in terms of capacity limitations at a comparison stage where a visually salient item is more likely to exhaust resources leading it to be prematurely parsed as a match.

scholarly journals A bimodal extension of the Eriksen flanker task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Ulrich ◽  
Laura Prislan ◽  
Jeff Miller
Keyword(s):  
Visual Target ◽  
Target Item ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Response Competition ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Flanker Effect ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Abstract The Eriksen flanker task is a traditional conflict paradigm for studying the influence of task-irrelevant information on the processing of task-relevant information. In this task, participants are asked to respond to a visual target item (e.g., a letter) that is flanked by task-irrelevant items (e.g., also letters). Responses are typically faster and more accurate when the task-irrelevant information is response-congruent with the visual target than when it is incongruent. Several researchers have attributed the starting point of this flanker effect to poor selective filtering at a perceptual level (e.g., spotlight models), which subsequently produces response competition at post-perceptual stages. The present study examined whether a flanker-like effect could also be established within a bimodal analog of the flanker task with auditory irrelevant letters and visual target letters, which must be processed along different processing routes. The results of two experiments revealed that a flanker-like effect is also present with bimodal stimuli. In contrast to the unimodal flanker task, however, the effect only emerged when flankers and targets shared the same letter name, but not when they were different letters mapped onto the same response. We conclude that the auditory flankers can influence the time needed to recognize visual targets but do not directly activate their associated responses.

Tuning Perceptual Competition

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 1057-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Wascher ◽  
Christian Beste
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Luminance Change ◽  
Orientation Change ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Relative Salience

The ability to notice relevant visual information has been assumed to be determined both by the relative salience of relevant information compared with distracters within a given display and by voluntary allocation of attention toward intended goals. A dominance of either of these two mechanisms in stimulus processing has been claimed by different theories. A central question in this context is to what degree and how task irrelevant signals can influence processing of target information. In the present study, participants had to detect a luminance change in various conditions among others against an irrelevant orientation change. The saliency of the latter was systematically varied and was found to be predictive for the proportion of detected information when relevant and irrelevant information were spatially separated but not when they overlapped. Weighting and competition of incoming signals was reflected in the amplitude of the N1pc component of the event-related potential. Initial orientation of attention toward the irrelevant element had to be followed by a reallocation process, reflected in an N2pc. The control of conflicting information additionally evoked a fronto-central N2 that varied with the amount of competition induced. Thus the data support models that assume that attention is a dynamic interplay of bottom-up and top-down processes that may be mediated via a common dynamic neural network.

Neural Mechanisms of Spatial Attention in the Visual Thalamus

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri B. Saalmann ◽  
Sabine Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Thalamic Nucleus ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
First Order ◽  
Visual Thalamus ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Cortical

Neural mechanisms of selective attention route behaviourally relevant information through brain networks for detailed processing. These attention mechanisms are classically viewed as being solely implemented in the cortex, relegating the thalamus to a passive relay of sensory information. However, this passive view of the thalamus is being revised in light of recent studies supporting an important role for the thalamus in selective attention. Evidence suggests that the first-order thalamic nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus, regulates the visual information transmitted from the retina to visual cortex, while the higher-order thalamic nucleus, the pulvinar, regulates information transmission between visual cortical areas, according to attentional demands. This chapter discusses how modulation of thalamic responses, switching the response mode of thalamic neurons, and changes in neural synchrony across thalamo-cortical networks contribute to selective attention.

scholarly journals Aging and Sensitivity to Illusory Target Motion With or Without Secondary Tasks

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 227-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alix L. de Dieuleveult ◽  
Anne-Marie Brouwer ◽  
Petra C. Siemonsma ◽  
Jan B. F. van Erp ◽  
Eli Brenner
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
The Right ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Background Motion

Older individuals seem to find it more difficult to ignore inaccurate sensory cues than younger individuals. We examined whether this could be quantified using an interception task. Twenty healthy young adults (age 18–34) and twenty-four healthy older adults (age 60–82) were asked to tap on discs that were moving downwards on a screen with their finger. Moving the background to the left made the discs appear to move more to the right. Moving the background to the right made them appear to move more to the left. The discs disappeared before the finger reached the screen, so participants had to anticipate how the target would continue to move. We examined how misjudging the disc’s motion when the background moves influenced tapping. Participants received veridical feedback about their performance, so their sensitivity to the illusory motion indicates to what extent they could ignore the task-irrelevant visual information. We expected older adults to be more sensitive to the illusion than younger adults. To investigate whether sensorimotor or cognitive load would increase this sensitivity, we also asked participants to do the task while standing on foam or counting tones. Background motion influenced older adults more than younger adults. The secondary tasks did not increase the background’s influence. Older adults might be more sensitive to the moving background because they find it more difficult to ignore irrelevant sensory information in general, but they may rely more on vision because they have less reliable proprioceptive and vestibular information.

scholarly journals Dynamic Population Coding of Category Information in Inferior Temporal and Prefrontal Cortex

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 1407-1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan M. Meyers ◽  
David J. Freedman ◽  
Gabriel Kreiman ◽  
Earl K. Miller ◽  
Tomaso Poggio
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Population Coding ◽  
Inferior Temporal Cortex ◽  
Category Information ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Dynamic Population

Most electrophysiology studies analyze the activity of each neuron separately. While such studies have given much insight into properties of the visual system, they have also potentially overlooked important aspects of information coded in changing patterns of activity that are distributed over larger populations of neurons. In this work, we apply a population decoding method to better estimate what information is available in neuronal ensembles and how this information is coded in dynamic patterns of neural activity in data recorded from inferior temporal cortex (ITC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) as macaque monkeys engaged in a delayed match-to-category task. Analyses of activity patterns in ITC and PFC revealed that both areas contain “abstract” category information (i.e., category information that is not directly correlated with properties of the stimuli); however, in general, PFC has more task-relevant information, and ITC has more detailed visual information. Analyses examining how information coded in these areas show that almost all category information is available in a small fraction of the neurons in the population. Most remarkably, our results also show that category information is coded by a nonstationary pattern of activity that changes over the course of a trial with individual neurons containing information on much shorter time scales than the population as a whole.

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