scholarly journals The link between reading ability and visual spatial attention across development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex L. White ◽  
Geoffrey M. Boynton ◽  
Jason D. Yeatman
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Cueing Effect ◽  
Wide Range

Interacting with a cluttered and dynamic environment requires making decisions about visual information at relevant locations while ignoring irrelevant locations. Typical adults can do this with covert spatial attention: prioritizing particular visual field locations even without moving the eyes. Deficits of covert spatial attention have been implicated in developmental dyslexia, a specific reading disability. Previous studies of children with dyslexia, however, have been complicated by group differences in overall task ability that are difficult to distinguish from selective spatial attention. Here, we used a single-fixation visual search task to estimate orientation discrimination thresholds with and without an informative spatial cue in a large sample (N=123) of people ranging in age from 5 to 70 years and with a wide range of reading abilities. We assessed the efficiency of attentional selection via the cueing effect: the difference in log thresholds with and without the spatial cue. Across our whole sample, both absolute thresholds and the cueing effect gradually improved throughout childhood and adolescence. Compared to typical readers, individuals with dyslexia had higher thresholds (worse orientation discrimination) as well as smaller cueing effects (weaker attentional selection). Those differences in dyslexia were especially pronounced prior to age 20, when basic visual function is still maturing. Thus, in line with previous theories, literacy skills are associated with the development of selective spatial attention.

scholarly journals Visually Induced Inhibition of Return Affects the Integration of Auditory and Visual Information

Perception ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Van der Stoep ◽  
S. Van der Stigchel ◽  
T. C. W. Nijboer ◽  
C. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Signal Strength ◽  
Audiovisual Integration ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Response Enhancement

Multisensory integration (MSI) and exogenous spatial attention can both speedup responses to perceptual events. Recently, it has been shown that audiovisual integration at exogenously attended locations is reduced relative to unattended locations. This effect was observed at short cue-target intervals (200–250 ms). At longer intervals, however, the initial benefits of exogenous shifts of spatial attention at the cued location are often replaced by response time (RT) costs (also known as Inhibition of Return, IOR). Given these opposing cueing effects at shorter versus longer intervals, we decided to investigate whether MSI would also be affected by IOR. Uninformative exogenous visual spatial cues were presented between 350 and 450 ms prior to the onset of auditory, visual, and audiovisual targets. As expected, IOR was observed for visual targets (invalid cue RT < valid cue RT). For auditory and audiovisual targets, neither IOR nor any spatial cueing effects were observed. The amount of relative multisensory response enhancement and race model inequality violation was larger for uncued as compared with cued locations indicating that IOR reduces MSI. The results are discussed in the context of changes in unisensory signal strength at cued as compared with uncued locations.

Magnocellular mediated visual-spatial attention and reading ability

Neuroreport ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (14) ◽  
pp. 2215-2218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristofer Kinsey ◽  
Marina Rose ◽  
Peter Hansen ◽  
Alex Richardson ◽  
John Stein
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

scholarly journals Selection and suppression of visual information in the macaque prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Di Bello ◽  
S. Ben Hadj Hassen ◽  
E. Astrand ◽  
S. Ben Hamed
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractIn everyday life, we are continuously struggling at focusing on our current goals while at the same time avoiding distractions. Attention is the neuro-cognitive process devoted to the selection of behaviorally relevant sensory information while at the same time preventing distraction by irrelevant information. Visual selection can be implemented by both long-term (learning-based spatial prioritization) and short term (dynamic spatial attention) mechanisms. On the other hand, distraction can be prevented proactively, by strategically prioritizing task-relevant information at the expense of irrelevant information, or reactively, by actively suppressing the processing of distractors. The distinctive neuronal signature of each of these four processes is largely unknown. Likewise, how selection and suppression mechanisms interact to drive perception has never been explored neither at the behavioral nor at the neuronal level. Here, we apply machine-learning decoding methods to prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity to monitor dynamic spatial attention with an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. This leads to several novel observations. We first identify independent behavioral and neuronal signatures for learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Second, we identify distinct behavioral and neuronal signatures for proactive and reactive suppression mechanisms. We find that while distracting task-relevant information is suppressed proactively, task-irrelevant information is suppressed reactively. Critically, we show that distractor suppression, whether proactive or reactive, strongly depends on both learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Overall, we thus provide a unified neuro-cognitive framework describing how the prefrontal cortex implements spatial selection and distractor suppression in order to flexibly optimize behavior in dynamic environments.

Proprioception and Visual Discrimination of Orientation in Octopus

1960 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-499
Author(s):  
M. J. WELLS
Keyword(s):  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Correct Orientation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Visual Discriminations

1. Twenty-two small octopuses were trained to make visual discriminations before and after removal of the statocysts. 2. Removal of one statocyst (left or right) did not affect performance in a visual discrimination of rectangles shown horizontally and vertically (8 experiments), nor did it determine which eye was used to guide attacks upon things seen (a record of this was kept in four of the experiments). 3. Removal of both statocysts did not affect performance in a discrimination between black and white circles (7 animals) but did destroy the capacity to discriminate successfully between rectangles shown horizontally and vertically (11 animals). 4. After removal of both statocysts the orientation of the retina (as indicated by the slit-like pupils) is no longer constant over the normal wide range of bodily positions, but depends upon how the animal is sitting on the side or bottom of its tank. 5. An analysis of the postoperational responses of animals trained to make the orientation discrimination showed that nearly all of them were biased in favour of one or other of the test figures, not always that used as ‘positive’ figure during preoperational training. The postoperational scores of these trained animals depended mainly upon the positions in which they habitually sat in their tanks; ndividuals in positions such that the retina of the eye used to observe the test figures lay at right angles to the position held during pretraining tended to behave perversely. 6. These results indicate that orientation discrimination is dependent upon correct orientation of the retina, rather than upon central integration of proprioceptive and visual information. This is discussed in relation to a possible mechanism of visual discrimination proposed by Sutherland (1957), and in relation to what is already known about the role of proprioceptive information in learning.

scholarly journals Spatial Attention Can Modulate Unconscious Orientation Processing

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5999 ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 1520-1528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahador Bahrami ◽  
David Carmel ◽  
Vincent Walsh ◽  
Geraint Rees ◽  
Nilli Lavie
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Selective Adaptation ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Interocular Suppression ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
The Difference

It has recently been suggested that visual spatial attention can only affect consciously perceived events. We measured the effects of sustained spatial attention on orientation-selective adaptation to gratings, rendered invisible by prolonged interocular suppression. Spatial attention augmented the orientation-selective adaptation to invisible adaptor orientation. The effect of attention was clearest for test stimuli at peri-threshold, intermediate contrast levels, suggesting that previous negative results were due to assessing orientation discrimination at maximum contrast. On the basis of these findings we propose a constrained hypothesis for the difference between neuronal mechanisms of spatial attention in the presence versus absence of awareness.

scholarly journals The link between reading ability and visual spatial attention across development

Cortex ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 121 ◽  
pp. 44-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex L. White ◽  
Geoffrey M. Boynton ◽  
Jason D. Yeatman
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Orienting and Focusing in Voluntary and Involuntary Visuospatial Attention Conditions

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Jianhui Wu ◽  
Shimin Fu ◽  
Yuejia Luo
Keyword(s):  
Gain Control ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Involuntary Attention ◽  
Attention Condition ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measurements in a peripherally cued line-orientation discrimination task to investigate the underlying mechanisms of orienting and focusing in voluntary and involuntary attention conditions. Informative peripheral cue (75% valid) with long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was used in the voluntary attention condition; uninformative peripheral cue (50% valid) with short SOA was used in the involuntary attention condition. Both orienting and focusing were affected by attention type. Results for attention orienting in the voluntary attention condition confirmed the “sensory gain control theory,” as attention enhanced the amplitude of the early ERP components, P1 and N1, without latency changes. In the involuntary attention condition, compared with invalid trials, targets in the valid trials elicited larger and later contralateral P1 components, and smaller and later contralateral N1 components. Furthermore, but only in the voluntary attention condition, targets in the valid trials elicited larger N2 and P3 components than in the invalid trials. Attention focusing in the involuntary attention condition resulted in larger P1 components elicited by targets in small-cue trials compared to large-cue trials, whereas in the voluntary attention condition, larger P1 components were elicited by targets in large-cue trials than in small-cue trials. There was no interaction between orienting and focusing. These results suggest that orienting and focusing of visual-spatial attention are deployed independently regardless of attention type. In addition, the present results provide evidence of dissociation between voluntary and involuntary attention during the same task.

Visual Spatial Attention in Migraine Sufferers in Postictal and Interictal Phases: An Event-Related Potential Study

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.H. de Koning ◽  
J.C. Woestenburg ◽  
M. Elton
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Migraine Attack ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Significant Enhancement ◽  
Pathophysiological Mechanism ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Migraineurs with and without aura (MWAs and MWOAs) as well as controls were measured twice with an interval of 7 days. The first session of recordings and tests for migraineurs was held about 7 hours after a migraine attack. We hypothesized that electrophysiological changes in the posterior cerebral cortex related to visual spatial attention are influenced by the level of arousal in migraineurs with aura, and that this varies over the course of time. ERPs related to the active visual attention task manifested significant differences between controls and both types of migraine sufferers for the N200, suggesting a common pathophysiological mechanism for migraineurs. Furthermore, migraineurs without aura (MWOAs) showed a significant enhancement for the N200 at the second session, indicating the relevance of time of measurement within migraine studies. Finally, migraineurs with aura (MWAs) showed significantly enhanced P240 and P300 components at central and parietal cortical sites compared to MWOAs and controls, which seemed to be maintained over both sessions and could be indicative of increased noradrenergic activity in MWAs.

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