Orienting of covert attention by neutral and emotional gaze cues appears to be unaffected by mild to moderate amblyopia

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent chronic pain has an impact on various attentional processes. To measure these attention processes a set of experimental standard tests of the “Testbatterie zur Aufmerksamkeitsprüfung” (TAP), a neuropsychological battery testing different levels of attention, were used: alertness, divided attention, covert attention, vigilance, visual search, and Go-NoGo tasks. 24 chronic outpatients and 24 well-matched healthy control subjects were tested. The control subjects were matched for age, gender, and education. The group of chronic pain patients exhibited marked deficiencies in all attentional functions except for the divided attention task. Thus, the data supports the notion that chronic pain negatively influences attention because pain patients` attention is strongly captivated by the internal pain stimuli. Only the more demanding divided attention task has the capability to distract the focus of attention to the pain stimuli. Therefore, the pain patients are capable of performing within normal limits. Based on these findings chronic pain patients' attentional deficits should be appropriately evaluated and considered for insurance and work related matters. The effect of a successful distraction away from the pain in the divided attention task can also open new therapeutic aspects.

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Visual search for multiple targets gives no evidence of amnesic covert attention

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e537102012-034 ◽

2001 ◽

Author(s):

Jason S. McCarley ◽

Matthew S. Peterson ◽

Arthur F. Kramer ◽

Ranxiao Frances Wang ◽

David E. Irwin

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Multiple Targets

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The Impact of Shape-Based Cue Discriminability on Attentional Performance

Vision ◽

10.3390/vision5020018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Olga Lukashova-Sanz ◽

Siegfried Wahl ◽

Thomas S. A. Wallis ◽

Katharina Rifai

Keyword(s):

Temporal Processing ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Human Performance ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Orientation Discrimination ◽

Know How ◽

Processing Times ◽

Attentional Performance ◽

Cue Processing ◽

The Impact

With rapidly developing technology, visual cues became a powerful tool for deliberate guiding of attention and affecting human performance. Using cues to manipulate attention introduces a trade-off between increased performance in cued, and decreased in not cued, locations. For higher efficacy of visual cues designed to purposely direct user’s attention, it is important to know how manipulation of cue properties affects attention. In this verification study, we addressed how varying cue complexity impacts the allocation of spatial endogenous covert attention in space and time. To gradually vary cue complexity, the discriminability of the cue was systematically modulated using a shape-based design. Performance was compared in attended and unattended locations in an orientation-discrimination task. We evaluated additional temporal costs due to processing of a more complex cue by comparing performance at two different inter-stimulus intervals. From preliminary data, attention scaled with cue discriminability, even for supra-threshold cue discriminability. Furthermore, individual cue processing times partly impacted performance for the most complex, but not simpler cues. We conclude that, first, cue complexity expressed by discriminability modulates endogenous covert attention at supra-threshold cue discriminability levels, with increasing benefits and decreasing costs; second, it is important to consider the temporal processing costs of complex visual cues.

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Zero gravity induced by parabolic flight enhances automatic capture and weakens voluntary maintenance of visuospatial attention

npj Microgravity ◽

10.1038/s41526-021-00159-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Adriana Salatino ◽

Claudio Iacono ◽

Roberto Gammeri ◽

Stefano T. Chiadò ◽

Julien Lambert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Space Exploration ◽

Parabolic Flight ◽

Vestibular Function ◽

Visuospatial Attention ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Zero Gravity ◽

Deep Space ◽

Otolith Organ ◽

Deep Space Exploration ◽

Automatic Capture

AbstractOrienting attention in the space around us is a fundamental prerequisite for willed actions. On Earth, at 1 g, orienting attention requires the integration of vestibular signals and vision, although the specific vestibular contribution to voluntary and automatic components of visuospatial attention remains largely unknown. Here, we show that unweighting of the otolith organ in zero gravity during parabolic flight, selectively enhances stimulus-driven capture of automatic visuospatial attention, while weakening voluntary maintenance of covert attention. These findings, besides advancing our comprehension of the basic influence of the vestibular function on voluntary and automatic components of visuospatial attention, may have operational implications for the identification of effective countermeasures to be applied in forthcoming human deep space exploration and habitation, and on Earth, for patients’ rehabilitation.

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Enhanced use of gaze cue in a face-following task after brief trial experience in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-90230-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Takao Fukui ◽

Mrinmoy Chakrabarty ◽

Misako Sano ◽

Ari Tanaka ◽

Mayuko Suzuki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum ◽

Face Image ◽

Fixation Time ◽

Gaze Shift ◽

The Gaze ◽

Face Images ◽

Trial Experience ◽

Short Period ◽

The Face ◽

Gaze Cues

AbstractEye movements toward sequentially presented face images with or without gaze cues were recorded to investigate whether those with ASD, in comparison to their typically developing (TD) peers, could prospectively perform the task according to gaze cues. Line-drawn face images were sequentially presented for one second each on a laptop PC display, and the face images shifted from side-to-side and up-and-down. In the gaze cue condition, the gaze of the face image was directed to the position where the next face would be presented. Although the participants with ASD looked less at the eye area of the face image than their TD peers, they could perform comparable smooth gaze shift to the gaze cue of the face image in the gaze cue condition. This appropriate gaze shift in the ASD group was more evident in the second half of trials in than in the first half, as revealed by the mean proportion of fixation time in the eye area to valid gaze data in the early phase (during face image presentation) and the time to first fixation on the eye area. These results suggest that individuals with ASD may benefit from the short-period trial experiment by enhancing the usage of gaze cue.

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Visual Attention and Aging: an Age-Related Cognitive Model of Positive Adaptation

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education ◽

10.3390/ejihpe4030017 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 181-191

Author(s):

José Manuel Rodríguez-Ferrer

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Response Times ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cognitive Model ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Positive Adaptation ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Age Related ◽

Healthy Young People

We have studied the effects of normal aging on visual attention. Have participated a group of 38 healthy elderly people with an average age of 67.8 years and a group of 39 healthy young people with average age of 19.2 years. In a first experiment of visual detection, response times were recorded, with and without covert attention, to the presentation of stimuli (0.5º in diameter grey circles) appearing in three eccentricities (2.15, 3.83 and 5.53° of visual field) and with three levels of contrast (6, 16 and 78%). In a second experiment of visual form discrimination circles and squares with the same features as in the previous experiment were presented, but in this case subjects only should respond to the emergence of the circles. In both age groups, the covert attention reduced response times. Compared to young people, the older group achieved better results in some aspects of attention tests and response times were reduced more in the stimuli of greater eccentricity. The data suggest that there is a mechanism of adaptation in aging, in which visual attention especially favors the perception of those stimuli more difficult to detec

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Attention and its Role: Theories and Models

International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET) ◽

10.3991/ijet.v14i12.10185 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 169

Author(s):

Athanasios Drigas ◽

Maria Karyotaki

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Inhibition Of Return ◽

Saliency Map ◽

Saccadic Suppression ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Attentional Deployment ◽

Affect And Cognition ◽

Visual Scenes ◽

Selection Of ◽

Complete Account

Motivation, affect and cognition are interrelated. However, the control of attentional deployment and more specifically, attempting to provide a more complete account of the interactions between the dorsal and ventral processing streams is still a challenge. The interaction between overt and covert attention is particularly important for models concerned with visual search. Further modeling of such interactions can assist to scrutinize many mechanisms, such as saccadic suppression, dynamic remapping of the saliency map and inhibition of return, covert pre-selection of targets for overt saccades and online understanding of complex visual scenes.

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Endogenously Generated and Visually Guided Saccades after Lesions of the Human Frontal Eye Fields

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1994.6.4.400 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 400-411 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Author(s):

Avishai Henik ◽

Robert Rafal ◽

Dell Rhodes

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Visual Display ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Visual Signal ◽

Frontal Eye Fields ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Control Subjects ◽

Key Press ◽

Reflexive Saccades ◽

Voluntary Saccades

Nine patients with chronic, unilateral lesions of the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex including the frontal eye fields (FEF) made saccades toward contralesional and ipsilesional fields. The saccades were either voluntarily directed in response to arrows in the center of a visual display, or were reflexively summoned by a peripheral visual signal. Saccade latencies were compared to those made by seven neurologic control patients with chronic, unilateral lesions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex sparing the FEF, and by 13 normal control subjects. In both the normal and neurologic control subjects, reflexive saccades had shorter Latencies than voluntary saccades. In the FEF lesion patients, voluntary saccades had longer latencies toward the contralesional field than toward the ipsilesional field. The opposite pattern was found for reflexive saccades: latencies of saccades to targets in the contralesional field were shorter than saccades summoned to ipsilesional targets. Reflexive saccades toward the ipsilesional field had abnormally prolonged latencies; they were comparable to the latencies observed for voluntary Saccades. The effect of FEF lesions on saccacles contrasted with those observed in a second experiment requiring a key press response: FEF lesion patients were slower in making key press responses to signals detected in the contralesional field. To assess covert attention and preparatory set the effects of precues providing advance information were measured in both saccade and key press experiments. Neither patient group showed any deficiency in using precues to shift attention or to prepare saccades. The FEF facilitates the generation of voluntary saccatles and also inhibits reflexive saccades to exogenous signals. FEF lesions may disinhibit the ipsilesional midbrain which in turn may inhibit the opposite colliculus to slow reflexive saccades toward the ipsilesional field.

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Sex differences in eye gaze and symbolic cueing of attention

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/02724980443000124 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 631-650 ◽

Cited By ~ 176

Author(s):

Andrew P. Bayliss ◽

Giuseppe di Pellegrino ◽

Steven P. Tipper

Keyword(s):

Normal Population ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽

Exogenous Orienting ◽

Brain Theory ◽

Attention Systems ◽

Symbolic Cues ◽

Extreme Male Brain Theory ◽

Gaze Cues

Observing a face with averted eyes results in a reflexive shift of attention to the gazed-at location. Here we present results that show that this effect is weaker in males than in females (Experiment 1). This result is predicted by the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism (Baron-Cohen, 2003), which suggests that males in the normal population should display more autism-like traits than females (e.g., poor joint attention). Indeed, participants′ scores on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Stott, Bolton, & Goodyear, 2001) negatively correlated with cueing magnitude. Furthermore, exogenous orienting did not differ between the sexes in two peripheral cueing experiments (Experiments 2a and 2b). However, a final experiment showed that using non-predictive arrows instead of eyes as a central cue also revealed a large gender difference. This demonstrates that reduced orienting from central cues in males generalizes beyond gaze cues. These results show that while peripheral cueing is equivalent in the male and female brains, the attention systems of the two sexes treat noninformative symbolic cues very differently.

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