scholarly journals Facial Emotions Guide Attention to Task-Irrelevant Color Cues

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 312b
Author(s):  
Thaatsha Sivananthan ◽  
Steven B. Most ◽  
Kim M. Curby
Keyword(s):  
Facial Emotions ◽  
Color Cues ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Attention To Task

Reward- and Attention-related Biasing of Sensory Selection in Visual Cortex

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1049-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Buschschulte ◽  
Carsten N. Boehler ◽  
Hendrik Strumpf ◽  
Christian Stoppel ◽  
Hans-Jochen Heinze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Extrastriate Visual Cortex ◽  
Response Enhancement ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Attention To Task

Attention to task-relevant features leads to a biasing of sensory selection in extrastriate cortex. Features signaling reward seem to produce a similar bias, but how modulatory effects due to reward and attention relate to each other is largely unexplored. To address this issue, it is critical to separate top–down settings defining reward relevance from those defining attention. To this end, we used a visual search paradigm in which the target's definition (attention to color) was dissociated from reward relevance by delivering monetary reward on search frames where a certain task-irrelevant color was combined with the target-defining color to form the target object. We assessed the state of neural biasing for the attended and reward-relevant color by analyzing the neuromagnetic brain response to asynchronously presented irrelevant distractor probes drawn in the target-defining color, the reward-relevant color, and a completely irrelevant color as a reference. We observed that for the prospect of moderate rewards, the target-defining color but not the reward-relevant color produced a selective enhancement of the neuromagnetic response between 180 and 280 msec in ventral extrastriate visual cortex. Increasing reward prospect caused a delayed attenuation (220–250 msec) of the response to reward probes, which followed a prior (160–180 msec) response enhancement in dorsal ACC. Notably, shorter latency responses in dorsal ACC were associated with stronger attenuation in extrastriate visual cortex. Finally, an analysis of the brain response to the search frames revealed that the presence of the reward-relevant color in search distractors elicited an enhanced response that was abolished after increasing reward size. The present data together indicate that when top–down definitions of reward relevance and attention are separated, the behavioral significance of reward-associated features is still rapidly coded in higher-level cortex areas, thereby commanding effective top–down inhibitory control to counter a selection bias for those features in extrastriate visual cortex.

scholarly journals Dissociating Reward- and Attention-driven Biasing of Global Feature-based Selection in Human Visual Cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haydee G. Garcia-Lazaro ◽  
Mandy V. Bartsch ◽  
Carsten N. Boehler ◽  
Ruth M. Krebs ◽  
Sarah E. Donohue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Target Color ◽  
Selective Area ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Attention Demands

Objects that promise rewards are prioritized for visual selection. The way this prioritization shapes sensory processing in visual cortex, however, is debated. It has been suggested that rewards motivate stronger attentional focusing, resulting in a modulation of sensory selection in early visual cortex. An open question is whether those reward-driven modulations would be independent of similar modulations indexing the selection of attended features that are not associated with reward. Here, we use magnetoencephalography in human observers to investigate whether the modulations indexing global color-based selection in visual cortex are separable for target- and (monetary) reward-defining colors. To assess the underlying global color-based activity modulation, we compare the event-related magnetic field response elicited by a color probe in the unattended hemifield drawn either in the target color, the reward color, both colors, or a neutral task-irrelevant color. To test whether target and reward relevance trigger separable modulations, we manipulate attention demands on target selection while keeping reward-defining experimental parameters constant. Replicating previous observations, we find that reward and target relevance produce almost indistinguishable gain modulations in ventral extratriate cortex contralateral to the unattended color probe. Importantly, increasing attention demands on target discrimination increases the response to the target-defining color, whereas the response to the rewarded color remains largely unchanged. These observations indicate that, although task relevance and reward influence the very same feature-selective area in extrastriate visual cortex, the associated modulations are largely independent.

scholarly journals Task-Irrelevant Features in Visual Working Memory Influence Covert Attention: Evidence from a Partial Report Task

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Foerster ◽  
Werner X. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Shape Matching ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Partial Report ◽  
Target Color ◽  
Color Target ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Selecting a target based on a representation in visual working memory (VWM) affords biasing covert attention towards objects with memory-matching features. Recently, we showed that even task-irrelevant features of a VWM template bias attention. Specifically, when participants had to saccade to a cued shape, distractors sharing the cue’s search-irrelevant color captured the eyes. While a saccade always aims at one target location, multiple locations can be attended covertly. Here, we investigated whether covert attention is captured similarly as the eyes. In our partial report task, each trial started with a shape-defined search cue, followed by a fixation cross. Next, two colored shapes, each including a letter, appeared left and right from fixation, followed by masks. The letter inside that shape matching the preceding cue had to be reported. In Experiment 1, either target, distractor, both, or no object matched the cue’s irrelevant color. Target-letter reports were most frequent in target-match trials and least frequent in distractor-match trials. Irrelevant cue and target color never matched in Experiment 2. Still, participants reported the distractor more often to the target’s disadvantage, when cue and distractor color matched. Thus, irrelevant features of a VWM template can influence covert attention in an involuntarily object-based manner when searching for trial-wise varying targets.

scholarly journals Object-based Selection of Irrelevant Features Is Not Confined to the Attended Object

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2231-2239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten N. Boehler ◽  
Mircea A. Schoenfeld ◽  
Hans-Jochen Heinze ◽  
Jens-Max Hopf
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Distractor Object ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Selection Of

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.

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.

scholarly journals Cognitive Evaluation of Bupropion Sustained Release in Heavy Tobacco Smokers Using Event-Related Potentials

Medicina ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Atilla Uslu ◽  
Ozge Erdem ◽  
Mehmet Ergen ◽  
Osman Ozdemir ◽  
Caglar Cuhadaroglu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Release ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Novelty P3 ◽  
Cognitive Evaluation ◽  
Parietal Area ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Attention To Task

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of bupropion sustained release (SR) on cognitive function, evaluated by event-related potentials (ERPs), in heavy tobacco smokers. Material and Methods. A total of 10 healthy volunteers (6 men and 4 women) were enrolled into the study. P3a and P3b components were evaluated by the novelty P3 paradigm. The ERP recordings were taken after the overnight abstaining and the first dose on the 1st day, on the 7th day, and 45th day of the therapy. Results. The analysis of electrophysiological data in response to the standard stimuli in the parietal area after 7-day bupropion SR treatment revealed a significant increase in the P2 latency (P<0.05). With respect to the drug use × topography effect, an increasing trend of borderline significance in the P3b and P2 amplitudes against target events in the parietal area was observed (P=0.08 for both). A significant increase in the P3a amplitude in the parietocentral area was also observed on the seventh day of treatment (P<0.05). Conclusions. The reduction of P3a in the frontal area may be due to the decreased distractibility of task-irrelevant novel events, which may mean an augmentation of focused attention to task-relevant target events. The increases in the P3b and P2 amplitudes for target events in the parietal area are very suggestive of this hypothesis, since these components reflect the response to task-relevant target events. Meanwhile, the increased P2 latency for standard events may reflect reduced attention resources for the processing of standard events due to increased attention resources allocated for task-relevant target events. Decreased distractibility and increased attention are believed to be caused by bupropion.

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