Visual Attention with Auditory Stimulus

Visual orienting attention is best studied using visual cues. Spatial and temporal attention have been compared using brain-imaging data. This chapter’s authors developed a visual orienting attention tool to compare auditory when a visual target was presented. They also designed a control task in which subjects had to click on the response key consistent with a simultaneous spatial task. The effect of clicking the response key was removed by subtracting the brain activations elicited by clicking the response key from the results of the visual voluntary attention task. The authors then measured brain activity in sixteen healthy volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (Coull, Frith, Büchel & Nobre, 2000). In the task, visual spatial attention was manipulated by a visual cue, and participants were told to ignore the auditory stimulus. A neutral task was also performed, in which a neutral cue was used. Symbolic central cues oriented subjects to spatial location only (Coull & Nobre, 1998) or gave no information about spatial location. Subjects were also scanned during a resting baseline condition in which they clicked the reaction key ten times. The reaction time for spatial location attention was faster than that without an auditory stimulus. Brain-imaging data showed that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) were activated in the visual-spatial attention task and that the activation was enhanced during the task with the auditory stimulus.

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

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027//0269-8803.15.1.22 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 22-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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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Influence of a visual spatial attention task on auditory early and late Nd and P300

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.04.005 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 121-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Joel Ramirez ◽

Marie Bomba ◽

Anthony Singhal ◽

Barry Fowler

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Attention Task ◽

Visual Spatial Attention ◽

Visual Spatial

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Unchanged EEG correlates of covert visual spatial attention after prism adaptation in healthy subjects

10.31234/osf.io/3mxc9 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marjolein van der Waal ◽

Inez Wijnands ◽

Jason Farquhar

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Healthy Subjects ◽

Prism Adaptation ◽

Attention Task ◽

Visual Spatial Attention ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Brain Signals ◽

Before And After ◽

Behavioural Performance ◽

P3 Component

Behavioural effects of prism adaptation in healthy subjects and neglect patients suggest a link between prism adaptation and spatial attention. A recent study found an effect of prism adaptation on several EEG correlates of spatial attention, but for two other correlates (the P3 component of the oddball ERP and alpha lateralization), the relationship remained unclear. In the current experiment, 10 healthy subjects performed a visual spatial attention task which was optimized for eliciting these two brain signals. This task was performed before and after adaptation to prism glasses with a leftward optical deviation. While prism adaptation induced a rightward bias on a pointing task, there was no effect of adaptation on behavioural performance on the spatial attention task. Moreover, the P3 component of the ERP and alpha lateralization were not influenced by prism adaptation. Together, these results show that some EEG correlates of visual spatial attention remain unchanged after prism adaptation, a finding which has its implications for current models of the neurocognitive mechanisms behind prism adaptation.

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Using Partial Directed Coherence to Study Alpha-Band Effective Brain Networks during a Visuospatial Attention Task

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2019/1410425 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Zongya Zhao ◽

Chang Wang

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Path Length ◽

Effective Connectivity ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Connectivity Pattern ◽

Characteristic Path Length ◽

Attention Task ◽

Visual Spatial Attention ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Global Efficiency

Previous studies have shown that the neural mechanisms underlying visual spatial attention rely on top-down control information from the frontal and parietal cortexes, which ultimately amplifies sensory processing of stimulus occurred at the attended location relative to those at unattended location. However, the modulations of effective brain networks in response to stimulus at attended and unattended location are not yet clear. In present study, we collected event-related potentials (ERPs) from 15 subjects during a visual spatial attention task, and a partial directed coherence (PDC) method was used to construct alpha-band effective brain networks of two conditions (targets at attended and nontargets at unattended location). Flow gain mapping, effective connectivity pattern, and graph measures including clustering coefficient (C), characteristic path length (L), global efficiency (Eglobal), and local efficiency (Elocal) were compared between two conditions. Flow gain mapping showed that the frontal region seemed to serve as the main source of information transmission in response to targets at attended location while the parietal region served as the main source in nontarget condition. Effective connectivity pattern indicated that in response to targets, there existed obvious top-down connections from the frontal, temporal, and parietal cortexes to the visual cortex compared with in response to nontargets. Graph theory analysis was used to quantify the topographical properties of the brain networks, and results revealed that in response to targets, the brain networks were characterized by significantly smaller characteristic path length and larger global efficiency than in response to nontargets. Our findings suggested that smaller characteristic path length and larger global efficiency could facilitate global integration of information and provide a substrate for more efficient perceptual processing of targets at attended location compared with processing of nontargets at ignored location, which revealed the neural mechanisms underlying visual spatial attention from the perspective of effective brain networks and graph theory for the first time and opened new vistas to interpret a cognitive process.

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