scholarly journals BOLD Repetition Decreases in Object-Responsive Ventral Visual Areas Depend on Spatial Attention

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 1241-1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Eger ◽  
R.N.A. Henson ◽  
J. Driver ◽  
R. J. Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Object Representation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Behavioral Effect ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Size Judgment ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Repetition Effects

Functional imaging studies of priming-related repetition phenomena have become widely used to study neural object representation. Although blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) repetition decreases can sometimes be observed without awareness of repetition, any role for spatial attention in BOLD repetition effects remains largely unknown. We used fMRI in 13 healthy subjects to test whether BOLD repetition decreases for repeated objects in ventral visual cortices depend on allocation of spatial attention to the prime. Subjects performed a size-judgment task on a probe object that had been attended or ignored in a preceding prime display of 2 lateralized objects. Reaction times showed faster responses when the probe was the same object as the attended prime, independent of the view tested (identical vs. mirror image). No behavioral effect was evident from unattended primes. BOLD repetition decreases for attended primes were found in lateral occipital and fusiform regions bilaterally, which generalized across identical and mirror-image repeats. No repetition decreases were observed for ignored primes. Our results suggest a critical role for attention in achieving visual representations of objects that lead to both BOLD signal decreases and behavioral priming on repeated presentation.

scholarly journals Corroborating behavioral evidence for the interplay of representational richness and semantic control in semantic word processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bechtold ◽  
Christian Bellebaum ◽  
Paul Hoffman ◽  
Marta Ghio
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Abstract Word ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Behavioral Evidence

AbstractThis study aimed to replicate and validate concreteness and context effects on semantic word processing. In Experiment 1, we replicated the behavioral findings of Hoffman et al. (Cortex 63,250–266, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.001, 2015) by applying their cueing paradigm with their original stimuli translated into German. We found concreteness and contextual cues to facilitate word processing in a semantic judgment task with 55 healthy adults. The two factors interacted in their effect on reaction times: abstract word processing profited more strongly from a contextual cue, while the concrete words’ processing advantage was reduced but still present. For accuracy, the descriptive pattern of results suggested an interaction, which was, however, not significant. In Experiment 2, we reformulated the contextual cues to avoid repetition of the to-be-processed word. In 83 healthy adults, the same pattern of results emerged, further validating the findings. Our corroborating evidence supports theories integrating representational richness and semantic control mechanisms as complementary mechanisms in semantic word processing.

Repetition Effects and Signal Classification Strategies in Serial Choice-Response Tasks

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M. A. Rabbitt
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Repetition Effect ◽  
Signal Classification ◽  
Choice Response ◽  
Information Load ◽  
Stimulus Information ◽  
Repetition Effects ◽  
Response Information

Repetition-effects (Bertelson, 1965) were examined in three serial self-paced choice-response tasks in which each response was made to all members of a class of more than one signal, and in one task in which eight different responses were each made to one of eight different signals. Three kinds of transition between successive responses occur in such tasks: transitions between Identical responses where the same signal and response are immediately repeated, transitions between Equivalent responses where the same response is made to a new signal and transitions between New responses where neither signal nor response are repeated. The relative reaction-times for these three classes of events were found to vary as a function of stimulus information load, as a function of response information load and as a function of the level of practice which subjects attained in the task in question. These variations allow some comment on the utility of recent models for serial and parallel stimulus analysis as explanatory constructs for the repetition-effect.

AGE OF ONSET, TYPE OF EXPOSURE, AND ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT OF L2 MORPHO-SYNTACTIC SENSITIVITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-823
Author(s):  
Eun-Kyoung Rosa Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Third Person

AbstractThe present study examined whether early immersive L2 exposure in a foreign language learning context can yield long-term advantages in L2 morpho-syntactic sensitivity. Participants were 40 Korean university students with high English proficiency, who had either attended an English kindergarten or begun learning English in a classroom, and a control group of native English speakers. All participants performed a speeded aural grammaticality judgment task that included the following features: articles, subcategorization, plural -s, third-person -s. Results showed that the English-kindergarten group outperformed the late-classroom group in terms of accuracy for ungrammatical sentences, while the two groups did not differ significantly on grammatical sentences and in reaction time measures. The learners altogether scored higher in plural -s and third-person -s compared to articles. While the native speakers showed near-perfect accuracy and fast reaction times, the highly proficient learners were at near-chance level in detecting morpho-syntactic errors during online L2 aural processing.

Intertrial Effects of Same-Different Judgements

1981 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lester E. Krueger ◽  
Ronald G. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Letter Pair ◽  
Preceding Trial ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Response Repetition ◽  
Stimulus Repetition ◽  
Repetition Effects ◽  
Stimulus Interval ◽  
Response Stimulus Interval ◽  
Response Stimulus ◽  
Present Trial

Specific intertrial effects (repetition effects) and general intertrial effects (refractoriness or persisting attention to the preceding trial) were studied with the same-different judgment task, which dissociates the effects of response repetition and stimulus repetition. Response repetition alone did not facilitate performance. Stimulus repetition did aid performance, but mainly when accompanied by response repetition. Subjects tended to avoid the normal comparison process by using the (invalid!) “bypass rule” (Fletcher and Rabbitt, 1978): repeat the response if the stimulus or some aspect thereof (letter contents, size, position) is repeated from the preceding trial, otherwise change the response. As to general effects, partial refractoriness was evident at response execution, but not at earlier processing stages. Mean RT increased, but errors decreased, as the response-stimulus interval (RSI) between trials decreased. Presenting a new letter pair immediately after the preceding response produced a delay, but subjects used the waiting time, while the response system recovered or was redirected to the present trial, to improve the accuracy of their decision.

Effect of spatial attention on stimulus-specific haemodynamic repetition effects

NeuroImage ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 1317-1329 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.N. Henson ◽  
E. Mouchlianitis
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Repetition Effects

Spatial attention deficits in humans: The critical role of superior compared to inferior parietal lesions

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1092-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rik Vandenberghe ◽  
Pascal Molenberghs ◽  
Céline R. Gillebert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Attention Deficits

scholarly journals The Temporal Dynamics of Object Processing in Visual Cortex during the Transition from Distributed to Focused Spatial Attention

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 4094-4105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien-Te Wu ◽  
Melissa E. Libertus ◽  
Karen L. Meyerhoff ◽  
Marty G. Woldorff
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Object Representation ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity

Several major cognitive neuroscience models have posited that focal spatial attention is required to integrate different features of an object to form a coherent perception of it within a complex visual scene. Although many behavioral studies have supported this view, some have suggested that complex perceptual discrimination can be performed even with substantially reduced focal spatial attention, calling into question the complexity of object representation that can be achieved without focused spatial attention. In the present study, we took a cognitive neuroscience approach to this problem by recording cognition-related brain activity both to help resolve the questions about the role of focal spatial attention in object categorization processes and to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms, focusing particularly on the temporal cascade of these attentional and perceptual processes in visual cortex. More specifically, we recorded electrical brain activity in humans engaged in a specially designed cued visual search paradigm to probe the object-related visual processing before and during the transition from distributed to focal spatial attention. The onset times of the color popout cueing information, indicating where within an object array the subject was to shift attention, was parametrically varied relative to the presentation of the array (i.e., either occurring simultaneously or being delayed by 50 or 100 msec). The electrophysiological results demonstrate that some levels of object-specific representation can be formed in parallel for multiple items across the visual field under spatially distributed attention, before focal spatial attention is allocated to any of them. The object discrimination process appears to be subsequently amplified as soon as focal spatial attention is directed to a specific location and object. This set of novel neurophysiological findings thus provides important new insights on fundamental issues that have been long-debated in cognitive neuroscience concerning both object-related processing and the role of attention.

Spatial recoding of sound: Pitch-varying auditory cues modulate up/down visual spatial attention

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 150-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irune Fernández-Prieto ◽  
Fátima Vera-Constán ◽  
Joel García-Morera ◽  
Jordi Navarra
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Spatial Processing ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Pitch Direction

Previous studies suggest the existence of facilitatory effects between, for example, responding upwards/downwards while hearing a high/low-pitched tone, respectively (e.g., Occeli et al., 2009; Rusconi et al., 2006). Neuroimaging research has started to reveal the activation of parietal areas (e.g., the intraparietal sulcus, IPS) during the performance of various pitch-based musical tasks (see Foster and Zatorre, 2010a, 2010b). Since several areas in the parietal cortex (e.g., the IPS; see Chica et al., 2011) are strongly involved in orienting visual attention towards external events, we investigated the possible effects of perceiving pitch-varying stimuli (i.e., ‘ascending’ or ‘descending’ flutter sounds) on the spatial processing of visual stimuli. In a variation of the Posner cueing paradigm (Posner, 1980), participants performed a speeded detection task of a visual target that could appear at one of four different spatial positions (two above and two below the fixation point). Irrelevant ascending (200–700 Hz) or descending (700–200 Hz) flutter sounds were randomly presented 550 ms before the onset of the visual target. According to our results, faster reaction times were observed when the visual target appeared in a position (up/down) that was compatible with the ‘pitch direction’ (ascending or descending) of the previously-presented auditory ‘cuing’ stimulus. Our findings suggest that pitch-varying sounds are recoded spatially, thus modulating visual spatial attention.

scholarly journals Kindergartners’ morphological awareness, its instruction and guidance in the Indonesian context

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Solehuddin ◽  
Wawan Gunawan ◽  
Eri Kurniawan
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Kindergarten Students ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
General Data

Children's language development is an arguably integral part of early childhood education. This research departs from the assumption that morphological awareness encompassing sensitivity to word units plays a critical role in ascertaining the success of children's reading skills in school. The purpose of the present study was two-fold: i) to assess the level of morphological awareness of preschool children, and ii) to reveal the types of learning and guidance activities in the classroom that facilitate the development of children's linguistic awareness and early literacy in general. Data were obtained through a set of morphological awareness tasks (a judgment task and a word analogy task) to kindergarten students aged 4-6 years, classroom observations, and interviews with the teachers. By virtue of an exploratory nature of this research, the data stemmed from one kindergarten in a North Bandung area, Indonesia. Findings reveal that the kindergarten children, in general, have demonstrated early signs of morphological awareness owing to ongoing language development. Their morphological awareness level appears to be contingent on the extent of their morphological knowledge. Pedagogically, it is found that the teachers have provided the students with various types of morphological knowledge learning and guidance activities in the school to help hone the awareness. Implicationally, explicit morphological awareness and vocabulary instruction need to be implemented in a preschool context to prepare children’s later academic success.

scholarly journals Rhythmic neural spiking and attentional sampling arising from cortical receptive field interactions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Kienitz ◽  
Joscha T. Schmiedt ◽  
Katharine A. Shapcott ◽  
Kleopatra Kouroupaki ◽  
Richard C. Saunders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
List Type ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Cortical Area

SummaryGrowing evidence suggests that distributed spatial attention may invoke theta (3-9 Hz) rhythmic sampling processes. The neuronal basis of such attentional sampling is however not fully understood. Here we show using array recordings in visual cortical area V4 of two awake macaques that presenting separate visual stimuli to the excitatory center and suppressive surround of neuronal receptive fields elicits rhythmic multi-unit activity (MUA) at 3-6 Hz. This neuronal rhythm did not depend on small fixational eye movements. In the context of a distributed spatial attention task, during which the monkeys detected a spatially and temporally uncertain target, reaction times (RT) exhibited similar rhythmic fluctuations. RTs were fast or slow depending on the target occurrence during high or low MUA, resulting in rhythmic MUA-RT cross-correlations at at theta frequencies. These findings suggest that theta-rhythmic neuronal activity arises from competitive receptive field interactions and that this rhythm may subserve attentional sampling.HighlightsCenter-surround interactions induce theta-rhythmic MUA of visual cortex neuronsThe MUA rhythm does not depend on small fixational eye movementsReaction time fluctuations lock to the neuronal rhythm under distributed attention

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