Pay attention to this, not that: Feature repetition prevents task-irrelevant feature processing

Attention to one feature of an object can bias the processing of unattended features of that object. Here we demonstrate with ERPs in visual search that this object-based bias for an irrelevant feature also appears in an unattended object when it shares that feature with the target object. Specifically, we show that the ERP response elicited by a distractor object in one visual field is modulated as a function of whether a task-irrelevant color of that distractor is also present in the target object that is presented in the opposite visual field. Importantly, we find this modulation to arise with a delay of approximately 80 msec relative to the N2pc—a component of the ERP response that reflects the focusing of attention onto the target. In a second experiment, we demonstrate that this modulation reflects enhanced neural processing in the unattended object. These observations together facilitate the surprising conclusion that the object-based selection of irrelevant features is spatially global even after attention has selected the target object.

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Involuntary orienting and conflict resolution during auditory attention: The role of ventral and dorsal streams

10.1101/2020.01.24.917310 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah J Stewart ◽

Dawei Shen ◽

Nasim Sham ◽

Claude Alain

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Conflict Resolution ◽

Response Times ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Irrelevant Feature ◽

Enhanced Activity ◽

Task Irrelevant

AbstractSelective attention to sound object features such as pitch and location is associated with enhanced brain activity in ventral and dorsal streams, respectively. We examined the role of these pathways in involuntary orienting and conflict resolution using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were presented with two tones that may share, or not, the same non-spatial (frequency) or spatial (location) auditory features. In separate blocks of trials, participants were asked to attend to sound frequency or sound location and ignore the change in the task-irrelevant feature. In both attend-frequency and attend-location tasks, response times were slower when the task-irrelevant feature changed than when it stayed the same (involuntary orienting). This behavioural cost coincided with enhanced activity in the prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus (STG). Conflict resolution was examined by comparing situations where the change in stimulus features was congruent (both features changed) and incongruent (only one feature changed). Participants were slower and less accurate for incongruent than congruent sound features. This congruency effect was associated with enhanced activity in the prefrontal cortex, and was greater in the right STG and medial frontal cortex during the attend-location than during the attend-frequency task. Together, these findings do not support a strict division of ‘labour’ into ventral and dorsal streams, but rather suggest interactions between these pathways in situations involving changes in task-irrelevant sound feature and conflict resolution. These findings also validate the Test of Attention in Listening task by revealing distinct neural correlates for involuntary orienting and conflict resolution.

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Measuring the memory quality of a task irrelevant feature of an attended object

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/15.12.667 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (12) ◽

pp. 667

Author(s):

Garrett Swan ◽

Brad Wyble

Keyword(s):

Irrelevant Feature ◽

Task Irrelevant

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EXPRESS: Automatically binding relevant and irrelevant features in visual working memory

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/17470218211053992 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174702182110539

Author(s):

Chenxiao Zhao ◽

Xinyu Li ◽

Michel Failing ◽

Benchi Wang

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Spatial Frequency ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Storage Space ◽

Memory Enhancement ◽

Irrelevant Feature ◽

Object Based ◽

Task Irrelevant

It is generally assumed that, in order to save storage space, features are stored as integrated objects in visual working memory (VWM). Although such an object-based account does not always hold because features can be processed in parallel, a previous study has shown that different features can be automatically bound with their locations (task-irrelevant feature) into an integrated unit, resulting in improved memory performance (Wang, Cao, Theeuwes, Olivers, & Wang, 2016). The present study was designed to further explore this phenomenon by investigating whether other features, that are not spatial in origin, can act as the binding cue to form such automatical binding. To test this, we used three different features as binding cues (i.e., color, spatial frequency, and shape) over multiple separate experiments. The results consistently showed that when two features shared the same binding cue, memory performance was better relative to when each of those features had their own binding cue. We conclude, that any task-irrelevant feature can act as a binding cue to automatically bind with task-relevant features even across different objects, resulting in memory enhancement.

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Responses to Task-Irrelevant Visual Features by Primate Prefrontal Neurons

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.2001.86.4.2001 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 86 (4) ◽

pp. 2001-2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Johan Lauwereyns ◽

Masamichi Sakagami ◽

Ken-Ichiro Tsutsui ◽

Shunsuke Kobayashi ◽

Masashi Koizumi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Target ◽

Color Discrimination ◽

Irrelevant Information ◽

Visual Features ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Motion Direction ◽

Color Feature ◽

Motion Feature ◽

Irrelevant Feature ◽

Task Irrelevant

The primate brain is equipped with prefrontal circuits for interpreting visual information, but how these circuits deal with competing stimulus-response (S-R) associations remains unknown. Here we show different types of responses to task-irrelevant visual features in three functionally dissociated groups of primate prefrontal neurons. Two Japanese macaques participated in a go/no-go task in which they had to discriminate either the color or the motion direction of a visual target to make a correct manual response. Prior to the experiment, the monkeys had been trained extensively so that they acquired fixed associations between visual features and required responses (e.g., “green = go”; “downward motion = no-go”). In this design, the monkey was confronted with a visual target from which it had to extract relevant information (e.g., color in the color-discrimination condition) while ignoring irrelevant information (e.g., motion direction in the color-discrimination condition). We recorded from 436 task-related prefrontal neurons while the monkey performed the multidimensional go/no-go task: 139 (32%) neurons showed go/no-go discrimination based on color as well as motion direction (“integration cells”); 192 neurons (44%) showed go/no-go discrimination only based on color (“color-feature cells”); and 105 neurons (24%) showed go/no-go discrimination only based on motion direction (“motion-feature cells”). Overall, however, 162 neurons (37%) were influenced by irrelevant information: 53 neurons (38%) among integration cells, 71 neurons (37%) among color-feature cells, and 38 neurons (36%) among motion-feature cells. Across all types of neurons, the response to an irrelevant feature was positively correlated with the response to the same feature when it was relevant, indicating that the influence from irrelevant information is a residual from S-R associations that are relevant in a different context. Temporal and anatomical differences among integration, color-feature and motion-feature cells suggested a sequential mode of information processing in prefrontal cortex, with integration cells situated toward the output of the decision-making process. In these cells, the response to irrelevant information appears as a congruency effect, with better go/no-go discrimination when both the relevant and irrelevant feature are associated with the same response than when they are associated with different responses. This congruency effect could be the result of the combined input from color- and motion-feature cells. Thus these data suggest that irrelevant features lead to partial activation of neurons even toward the output of the decision-making process in primate prefrontal cortex.

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