scholarly journals Neural Mechanisms Mediating Contingent Capture of Attention by Affective Stimuli

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 1113-1126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal Reeck ◽  
Kevin S. LaBar ◽  
Tobias Egner
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Contingent Capture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Exogenous Cues ◽  
Face Stimuli

Attention is attracted exogenously by physically salient stimuli, but this effect can be dampened by endogenous attention settings, a phenomenon called “contingent capture.” Emotionally salient stimuli are also thought to exert a strong exogenous influence on attention, especially in anxious individuals, but whether and how top–down attention can ameliorate bottom–up capture by affective stimuli is currently unknown. Here, we paired a novel spatial cueing task with fMRI to investigate contingent capture as a function of the affective salience of bottom–up cues (face stimuli) and individual differences in trait anxiety. In the absence of top–down cues, exogenous stimuli validly cueing targets facilitated attention in low-anxious participants, regardless of affective salience. However, although high-anxious participants exhibited similar facilitation following neutral exogenous cues, this facilitation was completely absent following affectively negative exogenous cues. Critically, these effects were contingent on endogenous attentional settings, such that explicit top–down cues presented before the appearance of exogenous stimuli removed anxious individuals' sensitivity to affectively salient stimuli. fMRI analyses revealed a network of brain regions underlying this variability in affective contingent capture across individuals, including the fusiform face area (FFA), posterior ventrolateral frontal cortex, and SMA. Importantly, activation in the posterior ventrolateral frontal cortex and the SMA fully mediated the effects observed in FFA, demonstrating a critical role for these frontal regions in mediating attentional orienting and interference resolution processes when engaged by affectively salient stimuli.

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.

Visual Attention With Cognitive Aging

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Madden ◽  
Zachary A. Monge
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Object Identification ◽  
Features Selection ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Attentional Functioning ◽  
Age Related

Age-related decline occurs in several aspects of fluid, speed-dependent cognition, particularly those related to attention. Empirical research on visual attention has determined that attention-related effects occur across a range of information processing components, including the sensory registration of features, selection of information from working memory, controlling motor responses, and coordinating multiple perceptual and cognitive tasks. Thus, attention is a multifaceted construct that is relevant at virtually all stages of object identification. A fundamental theme of attentional functioning is the interaction between the bottom-up salience of visual features and top-down allocation of processing based on the observer’s goals. An underlying age-related slowing is prominent throughout visual processing stages, which in turn contributes to age-related decline in some aspects of attention, such as the inhibition of irrelevant information and the coordination of multiple tasks. However, some age-related preservation of attentional functioning is also evident, particularly the top-down allocation of attention. Neuroimaging research has identified networks of frontal and parietal brain regions relevant for top-down and bottom-up attentional processing. Disconnection among these networks contributes to an age-related decline in attention, but preservation and perhaps even increased patterns of functional brain activation and connectivity also contribute to preserved attentional functioning.

scholarly journals A critical role of temporoparietal junction in the integration of top-down and bottom-up attentional control

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 4317-4333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Wu ◽  
Chi-Fu Chang ◽  
Sisi Xi ◽  
I-Wen Huang ◽  
Zuxiang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction

Attentional Capture by Salient Distractors during Visual Search Is Determined by Temporal Task Demands

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 749-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Kiss ◽  
Anna Grubert ◽  
Anders Petersen ◽  
Martin Eimer
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Response Onset ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The question whether attentional capture by salient but task-irrelevant visual stimuli is triggered in a bottom–up fashion or depends on top–down task settings is still unresolved. Strong support for bottom–up capture was obtained in the additional singleton task, in which search arrays were visible until response onset. Equally strong evidence for top–down control of attentional capture was obtained in spatial cueing experiments in which display durations were very brief. To demonstrate the critical role of temporal task demands on salience-driven attentional capture, we measured ERP indicators of capture by task-irrelevant color singletons in search arrays that could also contain a shape target. In Experiment 1, all displays were visible until response onset. In Experiment 2, display duration was limited to 200 msec. With long display durations, color singleton distractors elicited an N2pc component that was followed by a late Pd component, suggesting that they triggered attentional capture, which was later replaced by location-specific inhibition. When search arrays were visible for only 200 msec, the distractor-elicited N2pc was eliminated and was replaced by a Pd component in the same time range, indicative of rapid suppression of capture. Results show that attentional capture by salient distractors can be inhibited for short-duration search displays, in which it would interfere with target processing. They demonstrate that salience-driven capture is not a purely bottom–up phenomenon but is subject to top–down control.

A Supervisory Grid to Understand the Role of the Maintenance Foreman in Process Industries

1989 ◽  
Vol 203 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-123
Author(s):  
H S Riddell
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Process Industry ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Process Industries ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Practical Applications

The maintenance foreman occupies a critical role in a process industry. He is at the focus of two strong, sometimes conflicting, sets of influences, top-down from senior management, and bottom-up from the maintenance workload and tradesmen. It is a complex and ambiguous role both to the foremen themselves and to their managers. This paper explains why such ambiguity is likely to arise. A novel matrix is developed comprising four key interrelated domains of the maintenance foreman's role, and into which all the duties he is normally expected to perform can be categorized. The resulting supervisory grid clarifies both the wide scope of these duties, and identifies the two differing personal characteristics which maintenance foremen require in order to succeed in performing them. The grid has many practical applications. In particular it provides a sound basis for examining the new specialist and diversified roles for maintenance foremen which are now emerging in the process industry.

scholarly journals Bottom-up Retinotopic Organization Supports Top-down Mental Imagery

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruey-Song Huang ◽  
Martin I. Sereno
Keyword(s):  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Retinotopic Maps ◽  
Upper Visual Field ◽  
Retinotopic Organization ◽  
High Level

Finding a path between locations is a routine task in daily life. Mental navigation is often used to plan a route to a destination that is not visible from the current location. We first used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and surface-based averaging methods to find high-level brain regions involved in imagined navigation between locations in a building very familiar to each participant. This revealed a mental navigation network that includes the precuneus, retrosplenial cortex (RSC), parahippocampal place area (PPA), occipital place area (OPA), supplementary motor area (SMA), premotor cortex, and areas along the medial and anterior intraparietal sulcus. We then visualized retinotopic maps in the entire cortex using wide-field, natural scene stimuli in a separate set of fMRI experiments. This revealed five distinct visual streams or ‘fingers’ that extend anteriorly into middle temporal, superior parietal, medial parietal, retrosplenial and ventral occipitotemporal cortex. By using spherical morphing to overlap these two data sets, we showed that the mental navigation network primarily occupies areas that also contain retinotopic maps. Specifically, scene-selective regions RSC, PPA and OPA have a common emphasis on the far periphery of the upper visual field. These results suggest that bottom-up retinotopic organization may help to efficiently encode scene and location information in an eye-centered reference frame for top-down, internally generated mental navigation. This study pushes the border of visual cortex further anterior than was initially expected.

scholarly journals The role of the mirror neuron system in bottom-up and top-down perception of human action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy M. J. McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Understanding ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
Movement Simulation

When we see or hear another person execute an action, we tend to automatically simulate that action. Evidence for this has been found at the neural level, specifically in parietal and premotor brain regions referred to collectively as the mirror neuron system (MNS), and the behavioural level, through an observer's tendency to mimic observed movements. This simulation process may play a key role in emotional understanding. It is currently unclear the extent to which the MNS is driven by bottom-up automatic recruitment of movement simulation, or by top-down (task driven) mechanisms. The present dissertation examines the role of the MNS in the bottom-up and top-down processing of action in the auditory and visual modalities, in response to emotional and neutral movements performed by humans. Study 1 used EEG to demonstrate that the MNS is affected by bottom-up manipulations of modality, and shows that the MNS is activated to a greater extent towards multi-modal versus unimodal sensory input. Study 2 employed an EEG paradigm utilizing a top-down emotion judgment manipulation. It was found that the left STG, part of the extended MNS, is affected by top-down manipulations of emotionality, but there were no areas in classical MNS that met the statistical threshold to be affected by top-down forces. Study 3 employed an fMRi paradigm combining bottom-up and top-down manipulations. It was found that the classical MNS was strongly affected by bottom-up differences in emotionality and modality, and minimally affected by the top-down manipulation. Together, the three studies presented in this dissertation support the premise that the classical mirror neuron system is primarily automatic. More research is needed to determine whether top-down manipulations can uniquely engage the MNS.

scholarly journals The role of the mirror neuron system in bottom-up and top-down perception of human action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy M. J. McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Understanding ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
Movement Simulation

When we see or hear another person execute an action, we tend to automatically simulate that action. Evidence for this has been found at the neural level, specifically in parietal and premotor brain regions referred to collectively as the mirror neuron system (MNS), and the behavioural level, through an observer's tendency to mimic observed movements. This simulation process may play a key role in emotional understanding. It is currently unclear the extent to which the MNS is driven by bottom-up automatic recruitment of movement simulation, or by top-down (task driven) mechanisms. The present dissertation examines the role of the MNS in the bottom-up and top-down processing of action in the auditory and visual modalities, in response to emotional and neutral movements performed by humans. Study 1 used EEG to demonstrate that the MNS is affected by bottom-up manipulations of modality, and shows that the MNS is activated to a greater extent towards multi-modal versus unimodal sensory input. Study 2 employed an EEG paradigm utilizing a top-down emotion judgment manipulation. It was found that the left STG, part of the extended MNS, is affected by top-down manipulations of emotionality, but there were no areas in classical MNS that met the statistical threshold to be affected by top-down forces. Study 3 employed an fMRi paradigm combining bottom-up and top-down manipulations. It was found that the classical MNS was strongly affected by bottom-up differences in emotionality and modality, and minimally affected by the top-down manipulation. Together, the three studies presented in this dissertation support the premise that the classical mirror neuron system is primarily automatic. More research is needed to determine whether top-down manipulations can uniquely engage the MNS.

scholarly journals Shared neural mechanisms of visual perception and imagery

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Dijkstra ◽  
Sander Erik Bosch ◽  
Marcel van Gerven
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Neural Representations

For decades, the extent to which visual imagery relies on similar neural mechanisms as visual perception has been a topic of debate. Here, we review recent neuroimaging studies comparing these two forms of visual experience. Their results suggest that there is large overlap in neural processing during perception and imagery: neural representations of imagined and perceived stimuli are similar in visual, parietal and frontal cortex. Furthermore, perception and imagery seem to rely on similar top-down connectivity. The most prominent difference is the absence of bottom-up processing during imagery. These findings fit well with the idea that imagery and perception rely on similar emulation or prediction processes.

scholarly journals The bottom-up and top-down processing of faces in the human occipitotemporal cortex

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Fan ◽  
Fan Wang ◽  
Hanyu Shao ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Sheng He
Keyword(s):  
Facial Features ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
The Right

Although face processing has been studied extensively, the dynamics of how face-selective cortical areas are engaged remains unclear. Here, we uncovered the timing of activation in core face-selective regions using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetoencephalography in humans. Processing of normal faces started in the posterior occipital areas and then proceeded to anterior regions. This bottom-up processing sequence was also observed even when internal facial features were misarranged. However, processing of two-tone Mooney faces lacking explicit prototypical facial features engaged top-down projection from the right posterior fusiform face area to right occipital face area. Further, face-specific responses elicited by contextual cues alone emerged simultaneously in the right ventral face-selective regions, suggesting parallel contextual facilitation. Together, our findings chronicle the precise timing of bottom-up, top-down, as well as context-facilitated processing sequences in the occipital-temporal face network, highlighting the importance of the top-down operations especially when faced with incomplete or ambiguous input.

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