A Feedback Model of Attention Explains the Diverse Effects of Attention on Neural Firing Rates and Receptive Field Structure.

ABSTRACT: Visual attention has many effects on neural responses, producing complex changes in firing rates, as well as modifying the structure and size of receptive fields, both in topological and feature space. Several existing models of attention suggest that these effects arise from selective modulation of neural inputs. However, anatomical and physiological observations suggest that attentional modulation targets higher levels of the visual system (such as V4 or MT) rather than input areas (such as V1). Here we propose a simple mechanism that explains how a top-down attentional modulation, falling on higher visual areas, can produce the observed effects of attention on neural responses. Our model requires only the existence of modulatory feedback connections between areas, and short-range latera

SUBMITTER: Miconi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4758641 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature