Enhancement and Suppression Flexibly Guide Attention

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1724-1732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seah Chang ◽  
Howard E. Egeth
Keyword(s):  
Color Singleton ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Target Feature ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Feature Enhancement ◽  
Letter Target ◽  
Irrelevant Color

Previous research suggests that observers can suppress salient-but-irrelevant stimuli in a top-down manner. However, one question left unresolved is whether such suppression is, in fact, solely due to distractor-feature suppression or whether it instead also reflects some degree of target-feature enhancement. The present study ( N = 60) addressed this issue. On search trials (70% of trials), participants searched for a shape target when an irrelevant color singleton was either present or absent; performance was better when a color singleton was present. On interleaved probe trials (30% of trials), participants searched for a letter target. Responses were faster for the letter on a target-colored item than on a neutral-colored item, whereas responses were slower for the letter on a distractor-colored item than on a neutral-colored item. The results demonstrate that target-feature enhancement and distractor-feature suppression contribute to attentional guidance independently; enhancement and suppression flexibly guide attention as the occasion demands.

scholarly journals Brain Structures Involved in Visual Search in the Presence and Absence of Color Singletons

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Durk Talsma ◽  
Brian Coe ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz ◽  
Jan Theeuwes
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Color Change ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Color Singleton ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Random Letter ◽  
Irrelevant Color ◽  
Target Locations

It is still debated to what degree top–down and bottom–up driven attentional control processes are subserved by shared or by separate mechanisms. Interactions between these attentional control forms were investigated using a rapid event-related fMRI design, using an attentional search task. Following a prestimulus mask, target stimuli (consisting of a letter C or a mirror image of the C, enclosed in a diamond outline) were presented either at one unique location among three nontarget items (consisting of a random letter, enclosed in a circle outline; 50% probability), or at all four possible target locations (also 50% probability). On half the trials, irrelevant color singletons were presented, consisting of a color change of one of the four prestimulus masks, just prior to target appearance. Participants were required to search for a target letter inside the diamond and report its orientation. Results indicate that, in addition to a common network of parietal areas, medial frontal cortex is uniquely involved in top–down orienting, whereas bottom–up control is mainly subserved by a network of occipital and parietal areas. Additionally, we found that participants who were better able to suppress orienting to the color singleton showed middle frontal gyrus activation, and that the degree of top–down control correlated with insular activity. We conclude that, in addition to a common set of parietal areas, separate brain areas are involved in top–down and bottom–up driven attentional control, and that frontal areas play a role in the suppression of attentional capture by an irrelevant color singleton.

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.

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 Searching from the Top Down: Ageing and Attentional Guidance during Singleton Detection

2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wythe L. Whiting ◽  
David J. Madden ◽  
Thomas W. Pierce ◽  
Philip A. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Top Down ◽  
Attentional Guidance

scholarly journals Age-Related Preservation of Top-Down Attentional Guidance During Visual Search.

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Madden ◽  
Wythe L. Whiting ◽  
Roberto Cabeza ◽  
Scott A. Huettel
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Age Related
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