Task-irrelevant perceptual learning occurs only when the irrelevant feature is weak

Exposure to task-irrelevant feedback leads to perceptual learning, but its effect on motor learning has been understudied. Here we asked human participants to reach a visual target with a hand-controlled cursor while observing another cursor moving independently in a different direction. While the task-irrelevant feedback did not change the main task's performance, it elicited robust savings in subsequent adaptation to classical visuomotor rotation perturbation. We demonstrated that the saving effect resulted from a faster formation of strategic learning through a series of experiments, not from gains in the implicit learning process. Furthermore, the saving effect was robust against drastic changes in stimulus features (i.e., rotation size or direction) or task types (i.e., for motor adaptation and skill learning). However, the effect was absent when the task-irrelevant feedback did not carry the visuomotor relationship embedded in visuomotor rotation. Thus, though previous research on perceptual learning has related task-irrelevant feedback to changes in early sensory processes, our findings support its role in acquiring abstract sensorimotor knowledge during motor learning. Motor learning studies have traditionally focused on task-relevant feedback, but our study extends the scope of feedback processes and sheds new light on the dichotomy of explicit and implicit learning in motor adaptation as well as motor structure learning.

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

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21558 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (9) ◽

pp. 2231-2239 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

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.

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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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Visual perceptual learning of a primitive feature in human V1/V2 as a result of unconscious processing, revealed by Decoded fMRI Neurofeedback (DecNef)

10.1101/2020.11.30.405209 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zhiyan Wang ◽

Masako Tamaki ◽

Kazuhisa Shibata ◽

Michael S. Worden ◽

Takashi Yamada ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perceptual Learning ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Neural Mechanism ◽

Global Motion ◽

Local Motion ◽

Motion Direction ◽

Visual Perceptual Learning ◽

Visual Areas ◽

Motion Display ◽

Task Irrelevant

AbstractWhile numerous studies have shown that visual perceptual learning (VPL) occurs as a result of exposure to a visual feature in a task-irrelevant manner, the underlying neural mechanism is poorly understood. In a previous psychophysical study, subjects were repeatedly exposed to a task-irrelevant global motion display that induced the perception of not only the local motions but also a global motion moving in the direction of the spatiotemporal average of the local motion vectors. As a result, subjects enhanced their sensitivity only to the local moving directions, suggesting that early visual areas (V1/V2) that process local motions are involved in task-irrelevant VPL. However, this hypothesis has never been examined by directly examining the involvement of early visual areas (V1/V2). Here, we employed a decoded neurofeedback technique (DecNef) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. During the DecNef training, subjects were trained to induce the activity patterns in V1/V2 that were similar to those evoked by the actual presentation of the global motion display. The DecNef training was conducted with neither the actual presentation of the display nor the subjects’ awareness of the purpose of the experiment. As a result, subjects increased the sensitivity to the local motion directions but not specifically to the global motion direction. The training effect was strictly confined to V1/V2. Moreover, subjects reported that they neither perceived nor imagined any motion during the DecNef training. These results together suggest that that V1/V2 are sufficient for exposure-based task-irrelevant VPL to occur unconsciously.Significance StatementWhile numerous studies have shown that visual perceptual learning (VPL) occurs as a result of exposure to a visual feature in a task-irrelevant manner, the underlying neural mechanism is poorly understood. Previous psychophysical experiments suggest that early visual areas (V1/V2) are involved in task-irrelevant VPL. However, this hypothesis has never been examined by directly examining the involvement of early visual areas (V1/V2). Here, using decoded fMRI neurofeedback, the activity patterns similar to those evoked by the presentation of a complex motion display were repeatedly induced only in early visual areas. The training sensitized only the local motion directions and not the global motion direction, suggesting that V1/V2 are involved in task-irrelevant VPL.

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