scholarly journals Feature-based and location-based volitional covert attention affect memory at different timescales

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Ziman ◽  
Madeline R. Lee ◽  
Alejandro R. Martinez ◽  
Ethan D. Adner ◽  
Jeremy R. Manning
Keyword(s):  
Memory Task ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Attentional Shifts ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Prior Experiences

Our ongoing subjective experiences, and our memories of those experiences, are shaped by our prior experiences, goals, and situational understanding. These factors shape how we allocate our attentional resources over different aspects of our ongoing experiences. These attentional shifts may happen overtly (e.g., when we change where we are looking) or covertly (e.g., without any explicit physical manifestation). Additionally, we may attend to what is happening at a specific spatial location (e.g., because we think something important is happening there) or we may attend to particular features irrespective of their locations (e.g., when we search for a friend's face in a crowd). We ran two covert attention experiments that differed in how long they asked participants to maintain the focus of the features or locations they were attending. Later, the participants performed a recognition memory task for attended, unattended, and novel stimuli. Participants were able to shift the location of their covert attentional focus more rapidly than they were able to shift their focus of covert attention to stimulus features, and the effects of location-based attention on memory were longer-lasting than the effects of feature-based attention.

scholarly journals Decoding and Reconstructing the Focus of Spatial Attention from the Topography of Alpha-band Oscillations

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1090-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Samaha ◽  
Thomas C. Sprague ◽  
Bradley R. Postle
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Neural Populations ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Spatial Locations

Many aspects of perception and cognition are supported by activity in neural populations that are tuned to different stimulus features (e.g., orientation, spatial location, color). Goal-directed behavior, such as sustained attention, requires a mechanism for the selective prioritization of contextually appropriate representations. A candidate mechanism of sustained spatial attention is neural activity in the alpha band (8–13 Hz), whose power in the human EEG covaries with the focus of covert attention. Here, we applied an inverted encoding model to assess whether spatially selective neural responses could be recovered from the topography of alpha-band oscillations during spatial attention. Participants were cued to covertly attend to one of six spatial locations arranged concentrically around fixation while EEG was recorded. A linear classifier applied to EEG data during sustained attention demonstrated successful classification of the attended location from the topography of alpha power, although not from other frequency bands. We next sought to reconstruct the focus of spatial attention over time by applying inverted encoding models to the topography of alpha power and phase. Alpha power, but not phase, allowed for robust reconstructions of the specific attended location beginning around 450 msec postcue, an onset earlier than previous reports. These results demonstrate that posterior alpha-band oscillations can be used to track activity in feature-selective neural populations with high temporal precision during the deployment of covert spatial attention.

scholarly journals Local expectation violations result in global activity gain in primary visual cortex

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kok ◽  
Lieke L.F. van Lieshout ◽  
Floris P. de Lange
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Sensory Response ◽  
Specific Stimulus ◽  
Specific Location ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Violation Of Expectation ◽  
Global Activity

AbstractDuring natural perception, we often form expectations about upcoming input. These expectations are usually multifaceted – we expect a particular object at a particular location. However, expectations about spatial location and stimulus features have mostly been studied in isolation, and it is unclear whether feature-based expectation can be spatially specific. Interestingly, feature-based attention automatically spreads to unattended locations. It is still an open question whether the neural mechanisms underlying feature-based expectation differ from those underlying feature-based attention. Therefore, establishing whether the effects of feature-based expectation are spatially specific may inform this debate. Here, we investigated this by inducing expectations of a specific stimulus feature at a specific location, and probing the effects on sensory processing across the visual field using fMRI. We found an enhanced sensory response for unexpected stimuli, which was elicited only when there was a violation of expectation at the specific location where participants formed a stimulus expectation. The neural consequences of this expectation violation, however, spread to cortical locations processing the stimulus in the opposite hemifield. This suggests that an expectation violation at one location in the visual world can lead to a spatially non-specific gain increase across the visual field.

Task-Irrelevant Sound Corrects Leftward Spatial Bias in Blindfolded Haptic Placement Task

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 521-548
Author(s):  
Laura Cacciamani ◽  
Larisa Sheparovich ◽  
Molly Gibbons ◽  
Brooke Crowley ◽  
Kalynn E. Carpenter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Memory Task ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Dominant Hand ◽  
Spatial Bias ◽  
Leftward Bias ◽  
Object Location Memory ◽  
Irrelevant Sound ◽  
Haptic Object ◽  
The Right ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Abstract We often rely on our sense of vision for understanding the spatial location of objects around us. If vision cannot be used, one must rely on other senses, such as hearing and touch, in order to build spatial representations. Previous work has found evidence of a leftward spatial bias in visual and tactile tasks. In this study, we sought evidence of this leftward bias in a non-visual haptic object location memory task and assessed the influence of a task-irrelevant sound. In Experiment 1, blindfolded right-handed sighted participants used their non-dominant hand to haptically locate an object on the table, then used their dominant hand to place the object back in its original location. During placement, participants either heard nothing (no-sound condition) or a task-irrelevant repeating tone to the left, right, or front of the room. The results showed that participants exhibited a leftward placement bias on no-sound trials. On sound trials, this leftward bias was corrected; placements were faster and more accurate (regardless of the direction of the sound). One explanation for the leftward bias could be that participants were overcompensating their reach with the right hand during placement. Experiment 2 tested this explanation by switching the hands used for exploration and placement, but found similar results as Experiment 1. A third Experiment found evidence supporting the explanation that sound corrects the leftward bias by heightening attention. Together, these findings show that sound, even if task-irrelevant and semantically unrelated, can correct one’s tendency to place objects too far to the left.

scholarly journals Temporal Properties of Posterior Parietal Neuron Discharges During Working Memory and Passive Viewing

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 2254-2266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik C. Joelving ◽  
Albert Compte ◽  
Christos Constantinidis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Memory Condition ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Working memory is mediated by the discharges of neurons in a distributed network of brain areas. It was recently suggested that enhanced rhythmicity in neuronal activity may be critical for sustaining remembered information. To test whether working memory is characterized by unique temporal discharge patterns, we analyzed the autocorrelograms and power spectra of spike trains recorded from the posterior parietal cortex of monkeys performing a visuospatial working-memory task. We compared the intervals of active memory maintenance and fixation and repeated the same analysis in spike trains from monkeys never trained to perform any kind of memory task. The most salient effect we observed was a decrease of power in the 5- to 10-Hz frequency range during the presentation of visual stimuli. This pattern was observed both in the working-memory condition and the control condition, although it was more prominent in the former, where it persisted after cue presentation when the monkeys actively remembered the spatial location of the stimulus. Low-frequency power suppression resulted from relative refractory periods that were significantly longer in the working-memory condition and presumably emerged from local-circuit inhibition. We also detected a spectral peak in the 15- to 20-Hz range, although this was more prominent during fixation than during the stimulus and working-memory periods. Our results are in line with previous reports in prefrontal cortex and indicate that unique temporal patterns of single-neuron firing characterize persistent delay activity, although these do not involve the appearance of enhanced oscillations.

scholarly journals The effects of endogenous and exogenus orienting of attention on source memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-89
Author(s):  
Selene Cansino
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Symbolic Cues

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of endogenous and exogenous orienting of attention on episodic memory. Thirty healthy participants performed a cueing attention paradigm during encoding, in which images of common objects were presented either to the left or to the right of the center of the screen. Before the presentation of each image, three types of symbolic cues were displayed to indicate the location in which the stimuli would appear: valid cues to elicit endogenous orientation, invalid cues to prompt exogenous orientation and neutral or uncued trials. The participants’ task was to discriminate whether the images were symmetrical or not while fixating on the center of the screen to assure the manifestation of only covert attention mechanisms. Covert attention refers to the ability to orient attention by means of central control mechanisms alone, without head and eye movements. Trials with eye movements were excluded after inspection of eye-tracker recordings that were conducted throughout the task. During retrieval, participants conducted a source memory task in which they indicated the location where the images were presented during encoding. Memory for spatial context was superior during endogenous orientation than during exogenous orientation, whereas exogenous orientation was associated with a greater number of missed responses compared to the neutral trials. The formation of episodic memory representations with contextual details benefits from endogenous attention.

055 Novel sleep-dependent spatial memory and navigation task using Minecraft

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A23-A23
Author(s):  
Katharine Simon ◽  
Gregory Clemenson ◽  
Brandon Clayton ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Elisabet Alzueta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Delay Test ◽  
Location Accuracy ◽  
Median Split ◽  
Dependent Learning

Abstract Introduction Spatial navigation and memory are hippocampally-dependent and decrease with age, yet, ecologically-valid methods remain elusive. We developed an engaging and inherently flexible spatial navigation/memory task using the Minecraft platform to test sleep-dependent memory. We validated baseline performance and learning rates across two separate Minecraft environments. Methods Using a within-subjects design, twenty-two subjects experienced two conditions (wake/sleep) and two Minecraft environments, counterbalanced across subjects. At encoding, subjects learned the locations of 12 objects. Memory for object location accuracy and navigation route (distance between start and target; vector: angle of direction towards target location from start) was tested immediately and following 12-hours of wake or sleep. Post-hoc analyses were conducted using a median split on subjects’ Immediate test performance. Results There were no significant differences across conditions for the Immediate test performance (t(22) = .567, p = .576) across the two environments. Delayed test showed greater improvement in accuracy after sleep compared to wake (t(18) = 2.795, p=.012), no differences in distance or vector. Median split by Immediate test performance revealed that initially lower performance showed the greatest improvement after delay in the sleep group (t(18) = 2.818, p =.011), but not the wake group (t(18) = -1.051, p =.308). Additionally, these same subjects’ vector direction was initially worse at Immediate Test (t(18) = -2.9, p = .01), and improved with sleep, becoming equivalent to the better performers at Delay test (t(18) = -.336, p = .74). Conclusion We demonstrate a novel spatial navigation/memory tasks using Minecraft that shows sleep-dependent learning across two distinct environments. We showed enhancement of spatial location accuracy after a night of sleep compared to wake. We further demonstrate that with sleep, those with worse initial performance show the greatest memory and navigation improvement, consistent with other findings that sleep supports enhancement of weaker memories and extended to the spatial-domain. This novel platform can be used to evaluate spatial memory across the lifespan and within special clinical populations. Support (if any) NIH R01 AG061355

scholarly journals Exploring attentional focus of older adult fallers during heightened postural threat

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (7) ◽  
pp. 1877-1889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby J. Ellmers ◽  
Adam J. Cocks ◽  
William R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Behavioral Adaptations ◽  
Regulatory Strategies ◽  
Postural Threat ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
And Control

Abstract Objectives Threats to balance, and subsequent increases in fall-related anxiety, can disrupt attentional processing during gait in older adults, leading to behavioral adaptations which may increase fall risk. However, limited research has investigated what changes in attention occur to contribute to these disruptions. The aim of this research was to describe changes in attention that occur during gait when older adults’ balance is threatened, while exploring how previous fall history and trait movement reinvestment (conscious monitoring and control of movement) also influence attention. Methods Forty older adults reported where they focus their attention when walking during two scenarios: (1) when they are relaxed and there is little risk of falling, and; (2) when their balance is threatened and they are anxious of falling. Results During the high-threat condition, participants reported greater attention towards movement processes, threats to balance, worries/disturbing thoughts and self-regulatory strategies, with less attention directed towards task-irrelevant thoughts. However, fall history influenced attentional focus, with fallers directing greater attention towards worries/disturbing thoughts. Contrary to predictions, trait movement reinvestment was not associated with attention directed towards movement processes. Discussion As processing worries/disturbing thoughts will likely reduce attentional resources available for effective postural control, we highlight this as one potential area to target interventions aimed at reducing the likelihood of repeated falling.

scholarly journals The Potential Interaction Between Time Perception and Gaming: A Narrative Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1226-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip M. Nuyens ◽  
Daria J. Kuss ◽  
Olatz Lopez-Fernandez ◽  
Mark D. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Time Perception ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Potential Interaction ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Flow State ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Time Control ◽  
Flow States

Abstract Compromised time control is a variable of interest among disordered gamers because time spent on videogames can directly affect individuals’ lives. Although time perception appears to be closely associated with this phenomenon, previous studies have not systematically found a relationship between time perception and gaming. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative review is to explore how gaming disorder may be associated with time perception. It has been found that gamers exhibit a stronger attentional focus as well as an improved working memory compared with non-gamers. However, gamers (and especially disordered gamers) exhibit a stronger reaction to gaming cues which—coupled with an altered emotion regulation observed among disordered gamers—could directly affect their time perception. Finally, “'flow states”' direct most of the attentional resources to the ongoing activity, leading to a lack of resources allocated to the time perception. Therefore, entering a flow state will result in an altered time perception, most likely an underestimation of duration. The paper concludes that the time loss effect observed among disordered gamers can be explained via enhanced emotional reactivity (facilitated by impaired emotion regulation).

scholarly journals Beyond Scientific Mechanisms: Subjective Perceptions with Viniyoga Meditation

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2200
Author(s):  
Carrie Heeter ◽  
Marcel Allbritton ◽  
Chase Bossart
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Yoga Therapy ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Prior Experiences ◽  
Body Practices ◽  
Health And Well Being

Healthcare professionals and research scientists generally recognize the potential value of mind–body practices grounded in ancient wisdom, but often have limited direct experience with such practices. Meditation participant self-reports provide a window into subjective experiences of three Viniyoga meditations and how and why those meditations could contribute to health and well-being outcomes. Each of the meditations in this analysis had a unique structure and used a different aspect of the ocean as a meditation object. Yoga philosophy and yoga anatomy models of the human system are used to help explain participants’ experiences and associated personal benefits and insights. Four aspects of the individual that can influence what happens for them in meditation are illustrated with tangible examples: (1) What is happening in generally in someone’s life; (2) the state of their system (mind, body, breath) around the time of the meditation; (3) reactions to the meditation steps and instructions; and (4) their prior experiences with the object of meditation. Summaries of the practices, and why and for whom each meditation might be beneficial are discussed. The authors’ perspectives are grounded in Viniyoga and yoga therapy.

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