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

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 Difficulty of Discrimination Modulates Attentional Capture by Regulating Attentional Focus

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Risa Sawaki ◽  
Jun'ichi Katayama
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Central Location ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Capture Event

Attentional capture for distractors is enhanced by increasing the difficulty of discrimination between the standard and the target in the three-stimulus oddball paradigm. In this study, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of this modulation of attentional capture. Event-related brain potentials were recorded from participants while they performed a visual three-stimulus oddball paradigm (frequent standard, rare target, and rare distractor). The discrimination difficulty between standard and target was manipulated in the central location. Distractor stimuli were presented in the central or surrounding locations. The P3a component was elicited by distractor stimuli and was used as a measure of attentional capture. The results revealed that discrimination difficulty had opposite effects on the P3a response between central and surrounding locations. With an increase in the difficulty of discrimination, the P3a response was enhanced when distractor stimuli were presented in the central location. In contrast, the P3a response was reduced when distractor stimuli were presented in a surrounding location. This finding suggests that spatial attention was focused by the difficulty of discrimination, and deviant processing was increased within its focus but decreased outside its focus. Therefore, attentional capture for deviant distractors is modulated by top–down controlled attentional focus.

scholarly journals Top–down contingent attentional capture during feed-forward visual processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Ansorge ◽  
Gernot Horstmann ◽  
Ingrid Scharlau
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Feed Forward ◽  
Contingent Attentional Capture

The Role of Top–Down Focused Spatial Attention in Preattentive Salience Coding and Salience-based Attentional Capture

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1152-1165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Bertleff ◽  
Gereon R. Fink ◽  
Ralph Weidner
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Search Display ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Distractor Location ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Selective Visual Attention

Selective visual attention requires an efficient coordination between top–down and bottom–up attention control mechanisms. This study investigated the behavioral and neural effects of top–down focused spatial attention on the coding of highly salient distractors and their tendency to capture attention. Combining spatial cueing with an irrelevant distractor paradigm revealed bottom–up based attentional capture only when attention was distributed across the whole search display, including the distractor location. Top–down focusing spatial attention on the target location abolished attentional capture of a salient distractor outside the current attentional focus. Functional data indicated that the missing capture effect was not based on diminished bottom–up salience signals at unattended distractor locations. Irrespectively of whether salient distractors occurred at attended or unattended locations, their presence enhanced BOLD signals at their respective spatial representation in early visual areas as well as in inferior frontal, superior parietal, and medial parietal cortex. Importantly, activity in these regions reflected the presence of a salient distractor rather than attentional capture per se. Moreover, successfully inhibiting attentional capture of a salient distractor at an unattended location further increased neural responses in medial parietal regions known to be involved in controlling spatial attentional shifts. Consequently, data provide evidence that top–down focused spatial attention prevents automatic attentional capture by supporting attentional control processes counteracting a spatial bias toward a salient distractor.

scholarly journals Follow the sign! Top-down contingent attentional capture of masked arrow cues

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (-1) ◽  
pp. 82-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Reuss ◽  
Carsten Pohl ◽  
Andrea Kiesel ◽  
Wilfried Kunde
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Contingent Attentional Capture

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.

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