scholarly journals New insights on the ventral attention network: Active suppression and involuntary recruitment during a bimodal task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Solís-Vivanco ◽  
Ole Jensen ◽  
Mathilde Bonnefond
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Frequency Band ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Alpha Beta

ABSTRACTReorienting attention to unexpected events is essential in daily life. fMRI studies have revealed the involvement of the ventral attention network (VAN), including the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), in such process. In this MEG study with 34 participants (17 women) we used a bimodal (visual/auditory) attention task to determine the neuronal dynamics associated with suppression of the activity of the VAN during top-down attention and its recruitment when information from the unattended sensory modality is involuntarily integrated. We observed an anticipatory power increase of alpha/beta (12-20 Hz) oscillations in the VAN following a cue indicating the modality to attend. Stronger VAN power increases predicted better task performance, suggesting that the VAN suppression prevents shifting attention to distractors. Moreover, the TPJ was synchronized with the frontal eye field in that frequency band, suggesting that the dorsal attention network (DAN) might participate in such suppression. Furthermore, we found a 12-20 Hz power decrease, in both the VAN and DAN, when information of both sensory modalities was congruent, suggesting an involvement of these networks for attention capture. Our results show that effective multimodal attentional reorientation includes the modulation of the VAN and DAN through upper-alpha/beta oscillations. Altogether these results indicate that the suppressing role of alpha/beta oscillations might operate beyond sensory regions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTReorienting attention to unexpected events from multiple sensory sources is essential in daily life. We explored the dynamics of the ventral attention network (VAN), a set of brain regions related to attentional reorienting, when relevant information was anticipated (i.e. during top-down attention) and when unexpected congruent information from another sensory modality was presented (involuntary attentional capture). We report that activity in the alpha/beta range (12-20 Hz) within the VAN indexed both top-down and attentional capture processes. Also, the VAN was synchronized with the dorsal attention network in this frequency band, suggesting an integrated role of both networks for attentional regulation. Our results shed light on the neurophysiological mechanisms that the brain carry out for reorienting attention to relevant environmental stimuli.

scholarly journals The Dorsal Attention Network Reflects Both Encoding Load and Top–down Control during Working Memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Majerus ◽  
Frédéric Péters ◽  
Marion Bouffier ◽  
Nelson Cowan ◽  
Christophe Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Large Sets ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Memory Control ◽  
And Control

The dorsal attention network is consistently involved in verbal and visual working memory (WM) tasks and has been associated with task-related, top–down control of attention. At the same time, WM capacity has been shown to depend on the amount of information that can be encoded in the focus of attention independently of top–down strategic control. We examined the role of the dorsal attention network in encoding load and top–down memory control during WM by manipulating encoding load and memory control requirements during a short-term probe recognition task for sequences of auditory (digits, letters) or visual (lines, unfamiliar faces) stimuli. Encoding load was manipulated by presenting sequences with small or large sets of memoranda while maintaining the amount of sensory stimuli constant. Top–down control was manipulated by instructing participants to passively maintain all stimuli or to selectively maintain stimuli from a predefined category. By using ROI and searchlight multivariate analysis strategies, we observed that the dorsal attention network encoded information for both load and control conditions in verbal and visuospatial modalities. Decoding of load conditions was in addition observed in modality-specific sensory cortices. These results highlight the complexity of the role of the dorsal attention network in WM by showing that this network supports both quantitative and qualitative aspects of attention during WM encoding, and this is in a partially modality-specific manner.

TESTING GOAL-DRIVEN CAPTURE BY THREAT

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Robert Harrison Brown
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Contingent Capture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Clinical Disorders ◽  
Positive Stimuli

Attention has long been characterised within prominent models as reflecting a competition between goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes. It remains unclear, however, how involuntary attentional capture by affective stimuli, such as threat-laden content, fits into such models. While such effects were traditionally held to reflect stimulus-driven processes, recent research has increasingly implicated a critical role of goal-driven processes. Here we test an alternative goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat, using an experimental manipulation of goal-driven attention. To this end we combined the classic ‘contingent capture’ and ‘emotion-induced blink’ (EIB) paradigms in an RSVP task with both positive or threatening target search goals. Across six experiments, positive and threat distractors were presented in peripheral, parafoveal, and central locations. Across all distractor locations, we found that involuntary attentional capture by irrelevant threatening distractors could be induced via the adoption of a search goal for a threatening category; adopting a goal for a positive category conversely led to capture only by positive stimuli. Our findings provide direct experimental evidence for a causal role of voluntary goals in involuntary capture by irrelevant threat stimuli, and hence demonstrate the plausibility of a top-down account of this phenomenon. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to current cognitive models of attention and clinical disorders.

scholarly journals Temporal circuit of macroscale dynamic brain activity supports human consciousness

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. eaaz0087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zirui Huang ◽  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Jinsong Wu ◽  
George A. Mashour ◽  
Anthony G. Hudetz
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Brain States

The ongoing stream of human consciousness relies on two distinct cortical systems, the default mode network and the dorsal attention network, which alternate their activity in an anticorrelated manner. We examined how the two systems are regulated in the conscious brain and how they are disrupted when consciousness is diminished. We provide evidence for a “temporal circuit” characterized by a set of trajectories along which dynamic brain activity occurs. We demonstrate that the transitions between default mode and dorsal attention networks are embedded in this temporal circuit, in which a balanced reciprocal accessibility of brain states is characteristic of consciousness. Conversely, isolation of the default mode and dorsal attention networks from the temporal circuit is associated with unresponsiveness of diverse etiologies. These findings advance the foundational understanding of the functional role of anticorrelated systems in consciousness.

scholarly journals Role of the dorsal attention network in distracter suppression based on features

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armien Lanssens ◽  
Gloria Pizzamiglio ◽  
Dante Mantini ◽  
Celine R. Gillebert
Keyword(s):  
Attention Network ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network

Interaction of the Salience Network, Ventral Attention Network, Dorsal Attention Network and Default Mode Network in Neonates and Early Development of the Bottom-up Attention System.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Onofrj ◽  
Antonio Maria Chiarelli ◽  
Richard Wise ◽  
Cesare Colosimo ◽  
Massimo Caulo
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Salience Network ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network

Abstract The Salience Network (SN), Ventral Attention Network (VAN), Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and Default Mode Network (DMN) have shown significant interactions and overlapping functions in bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of attention. In the present study we tested if the SN, VAN, DAN and DMN connectivity can infer the gestational age (GA) at birth in a study group of 88 healthy neonates with GA at birth ranging from 28 to 40 weeks. We also ascertained whether the connectivity within each of the SN, VAN, DAN and DMN is able to infer the average functional connectivity of the others. The ability to infer GA at birth or another network's connectivity was evaluated using a multi-variate data-driven framework. A mediation analysis was performed in order to estimate the transmittance of change of a network’s functional connectivity (FC) over another mediated by the GA.The VAN, DAN and the DMN infer the GA at birth (p<0.05). The SN, DMN and VAN were able to infer the average connectivity over the other networks (p<0.05). Mediation analysis between VAN’s and DAN’s inference on GA found reciprocal transmittance of change of VAN’s and DAN’s connectivity (p<0.05). Our findings suggest that the VAN has a prominent role in the bottom-up salience detection in early infancy and that the role of the VAN and the SN may overlap in the bottom-up control of attention.

The role of top-down spatial attention in contingent attentional capture

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 650-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanyi Huang ◽  
Yuling Su ◽  
Yanfen Zhen ◽  
Zhe Qu
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Contingent Attentional Capture

scholarly journals The Microstructure of Attentional Control in the Dorsal Attention Network

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Abhijit Rajan ◽  
Sreenivasan Meyyappan ◽  
Yuelu Liu ◽  
Immanuel Babu Henry Samuel ◽  
Bijurika Nandi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Preparatory Attention ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Feature Attention ◽  
Command Signals

Abstract The top–down control of attention involves command signals arising chiefly in the dorsal attention network (DAN) in frontal and parietal cortex and propagating to sensory cortex to enable the selective processing of incoming stimuli based on their behavioral relevance. Consistent with this view, the DAN is active during preparatory (anticipatory) attention for relevant events and objects, which, in vision, may be defined by different stimulus attributes including their spatial location, color, motion, or form. How this network is organized to support different forms of preparatory attention to different stimulus attributes remains unclear. We propose that, within the DAN, there exist functional microstructures (patterns of activity) specific for controlling attention based on the specific information to be attended. To test this, we contrasted preparatory attention to stimulus location (spatial attention) and to stimulus color (feature attention), and used multivoxel pattern analysis to characterize the corresponding patterns of activity within the DAN. We observed different multivoxel patterns of BOLD activation within the DAN for the control of spatial attention (attending left vs. right) and feature attention (attending red vs. green). These patterns of activity for spatial and feature attentional control showed limited overlap with each other within the DAN. Our findings thus support a model in which the DAN has different functional microstructures for distinctive forms of top–down control of visual attention.

Top-Down Processing and Visual Reorientation Illusions in a Virtual Reality Environment

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred W. Mast ◽  
Charles M. Oman
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Line Length ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.

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