The Timing of Neural Activity during Shifts of Spatial Attention

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2369-2383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debora Brignani ◽  
Jöran Lepsien ◽  
Matthew F. S. Rushworth ◽  
Anna Christina Nobre
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Transient Effects ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Posterior Parietal

We developed a new experimental task to investigate the relative timing of neural activity during shifts of spatial attention with event-related potentials. The task enabled the investigation of nonlateralized as well as lateralized neural activity associated with spatial shifts. Participants detected target stimuli within one of two peripheral streams of visual letters. Colored letters embedded within the streams indicated which stream was to be used for target detection, signaling that participants should “hold” or “shift” their current focus of spatial attention. A behavioral experiment comparing performance in these focused-attention conditions with performance in a divided-attention condition confirmed the efficacy of the spatial cues. Another behavioral experiment showed that overt shifts of spatial attention were mainly complete by around 400 msec, placing an upper boundary for isolating neural activity that was instrumental in controlling spatial shifts. Event-related potentials recorded during a covert version of the focused-attention task showed a large amount of nonlateralized neural activity associated with spatial shifts, with significant effects starting around 330 msec. The effects started over posterior scalp regions, where they remained pronounced. Transient effects were also observed over frontal scalp regions. The results are compatible with a pivotal role of posterior parietal areas in initiating shifts of spatial attention.

scholarly journals Functionally independent components of early event-related potentials in a visual spatial attention task

1999 ◽  
Vol 354 (1387) ◽  
pp. 1135-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Makeig ◽  
Marissa Westerfield ◽  
Jeanne Townsend ◽  
Tzyy-Ping Jung ◽  
Eric Courchesne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Right Visual Field ◽  
Early Event ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Related Potentials

Spatial visual attention modulates the first negative–going deflection in the human averaged event–related potential (ERP) in response to visual target and non–target stimuli (the N1 complex). Here we demonstrate a decomposition of N1 into functionally independent subcomponents with functionally distinct relations to task and stimulus conditions. ERPs were collected from 20 subjects in response to visual target and non–target stimuli presented at five attended and non–attended screen locations. Independent component analysis, a new method for blind source separation, was trained simultaneously on 500 ms grand average responses from all 25 stimulus–attention conditions and decomposed the non–target N1 complexes into five spatially fixed, temporally independent and physiologically plausible components. Activity of an early, laterally symmetrical component pair (N1a R and N1a L ) was evoked by the left and right visual field stimuli, respectively. Component N1a R peaked ca. 9 ms earlier than N1a L . Central stimuli evoked both components with the same peak latency difference, producing a bilateral scalp distribution. The amplitudes of these components were not reliably augmented by spatial attention. Stimuli in the right visual field evoked activity in a spatio–temporally overlapping bilateral component (N1b) that peaked at ca. 180 ms and was strongly enhanced by attention. Stimuli presented at unattended locations evoked a fourth component (P2a) peaking near 240 ms. A fifth component (P3f) was evoked only by targets presented in either visual field. The distinct response patterns of these components across the array of stimulus and attention conditions suggest that they reflect activity in functionally independent brain systems involved in processing attended and unattended visuospatial events.

scholarly journals Auditory attention alterations in migraine: a behavioral and MEG/EEG study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémy Masson ◽  
Yohana Lévêque ◽  
Geneviève Demarquay ◽  
Hesham ElShafei ◽  
Lesly Fornoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Orienting Response ◽  
List Type ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Right ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractObjectivesTo evaluate alterations of top-down and/or bottom-up attention in migraine and their cortical underpinnings.Methods19 migraineurs between attacks and 19 matched control participants performed a task evaluating jointly top-down and bottom-up attention, using visually-cued target sounds and unexpected task-irrelevant distracting sounds. Behavioral responses and MEG/EEG were recorded. Event-related potentials and fields (ERPs/ERFs) were processed and source reconstruction was applied to ERFs.ResultsAt the behavioral level, neither top-down nor bottom-up attentional processes appeared to be altered in migraine. However, migraineurs presented heightened evoked responses following distracting sounds (orienting component of the N1 and Re-Orienting Negativity, RON) and following target sounds (orienting component of the N1), concomitant to an increased recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction. They also displayed an increased effect of the cue informational value on target processing resulting in the elicitation of a negative difference (Nd).ConclusionsMigraineurs appear to display increased bottom-up orienting response to all incoming sounds, and an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention.SignificanceThe interictal state in migraine is characterized by an exacerbation of the orienting response to attended and unattended sounds. These attentional alterations might participate to the peculiar vulnerability of the migraine brain to all incoming stimuli.HighlightsMigraineurs performed as well as healthy participants in an attention task.However, EEG markers of both bottom-up and top-down attention are increased.Migraine is also associated with a facilitated recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction.

scholarly journals When encodong yields remembering: insights from event-related neuroimaging

1999 ◽  
Vol 354 (1387) ◽  
pp. 1307-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D. Wagner ◽  
Wilma Koutstaal ◽  
Daniel L. Schacter
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Dm Effect ◽  
The Brain

To understand human memory, it is important to determine why some experiences are remembered whereas others are forgotten. Until recently, insights into the neural bases of human memory encoding, the processes by which information is transformed into an enduring memory trace, have primarily been derived from neuropsychological studies of humans with select brain lesions. The advent of functional neuroimaging methods, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has provided a new opportunity to gain additional understanding of how the brain supports memory formation. Importantly, the recent development of event–related fMRI methods now allows for examination of trial–by–trial differences in neural activity during encoding and of the consequences of these differences for later remembering. In this review, we consider the contributions of PET and fMRI studies to the understanding of memory encoding, placing a particular emphasis on recent event–related fMRI studies of the Dm effect: that is, differences in neural activity during encoding that are related to differences in subsequent memory. We then turn our attention to the rich literature on the Dm effect that has emerged from studies using event–related potentials (ERPs). It is hoped that the integration of findings from ERP studies, which offer higher temporal resolution, with those from event–related fMRI studies, which offer higher spatial resolution, will shed new light on when and why encoding yields subsequent remembering.

Assessment of Reactive Motor Performance with Event-Related Brain Potentials: Attention Processes in Elite Table Tennis Players

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsung-Min Hung ◽  
Thomas W. Spalding ◽  
D. Laine Santa Maria ◽  
Bradley D. Hatfield
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Lower Probability ◽  
Table Tennis ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Tennis Players ◽  
Readiness Potentials ◽  
Related Potentials

Motor readiness, visual attention, and reaction time (RT) were assessed in 15 elite table tennis players (TTP) and 15 controls (C) during Posner’s cued attention task. Lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) were derived from contingent negative variation (CNV) at Sites C3 and C4, elicited between presentation of directional cueing (S1) and the appearance of the imperative stimulus (S2), to assess preparation for hand movement while P1 and N1 component amplitudes were derived from occipital event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to S2 to assess visual attention. Both groups had faster RT to validly cued stimuli and slower RT to invalidly cued stimuli relative to the RT to neutral stimuli that were not preceded by directional cueing, but the groups did not differ in attention benefit or cost. However, TTP did have faster RT to all imperative stimuli; they maintained superior reactivity to S2 whether preceded by valid, invalid, or neutral warning cues. Although both groups generated LRP in response to the directional cues, TTP generated larger LRP to prepare the corresponding hand for movement to the side of the cued location. TTP also had an inverse cueing effect for N1 amplitude (i.e., amplitude of N1 to the invalid cue > amplitude of N1 to the valid cue) while C visually attended to the expected and unexpected locations equally. It appears that TTP preserve superior reactivity to stimuli of uncertain location by employing a compensatory strategy to prepare their motor response to an event associated with high probability, while simultaneously devoting more visual attention to an upcoming event of lower probability.

Language Acquisition and Cerebral Specialization in 20-Month-Old Infants

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra L. Mills ◽  
Sharon A. Coffey-Corina ◽  
Helen J. Neville
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Anterior Posterior

The purpose of the present study was to examine patterns of neural activity relevant to language processing in 20-month-old infants, and to determine whether or not changes in cerebral organization occur as a function of specific changes in language development. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded as children listened to a series of words whose meaning was understood by the child, words whose meaning the child did not understand, and backward words. The results showed that specific and different ERP components discriminated comprehended words from unknown and from backward words. Distinct lateral and anterior-posterior specializations were apparent in EW responsiveness to the different types of words. Moreover, the results suggested that increasing language abilities were associated with increasing cerebral specialization for language processing over the temporal and parietal regions of the left hemisphere.

scholarly journals Frontal and Parietal Components of a Cerebral Network Mediating Voluntary Attention to Novel Events

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Daffner ◽  
L. F. M. Scinto ◽  
A. M. Weitzman ◽  
R. Faust ◽  
D. M. Rentz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Parietal Lobes ◽  
Novelty P3 ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
P3 Amplitude

Despite the important role that attending to novel events plays in human behavior, there is limited information about the neuroanatomical underpinnings of this vital activity. This study investigated the relative contributions of the frontal and posterior parietal lobes to the differential processing of novel and target stimuli under an experimental condition in which subjects actively directed attention to novel events. Event-related potentials were recorded from well-matched frontal patients, parietal patients, and non-brain-injured subjects who controlled their viewing duration (by button press) of line drawings that included a frequent, repetitive background stimulus, an infrequent target stimulus, and infrequent, novel visual stimuli. Subjects also responded to target stimuli by pressing a foot pedal. Damage to the frontal cortex resulted in a much greater disruption of response to novel stimuli than to designated targets. Frontal patients exhibited a widely distributed, profound reduction of the novelty P3 response and a marked diminution of the viewing duration of novel events. In contrast, damage to posterior parietal lobes was associated with a substantial reduction of both target P3 and novelty P3 amplitude; however, there was less disruption of the processing of novel than of target stimuli. We conclude that two nodes of the neuroanatomical network for responding to and processing novelty are the prefrontal and posterior parietal regions, which participate in the voluntary allocation of attention to novel events. Injury to this network is indexed by reduced novelty P3 amplitude, which is tightly associated with diminished attention to novel stimuli. The prefrontal cortex may serve as the central node in determining the allocation of attentional resources to novel events, whereas the posterior parietal lobe may provide the neural substrate for the dynamic process of updating one's internal model of the environment to take into account a novel event.

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