Dataset Information

Object-based biased competition during covert spatial orienting.

ABSTRACT: Biased-competition models assert that spatial attention facilitates visual perception by biasing competitive interactions in favor of relevant input. In line with this view, past work has shown that the benefits of covert spatial attention are greatest when targets must compete with interfering stimuli. Here we propose a boundary condition for the resolution of interference via exogenous attention: Attention resolves visual interference between targets and distractors, but only when they can be individuated into distinct representations. Thus, we propose that biased competition may be object-based. We replicated previous observations of larger attention effects when targets were flanked by irrelevant distractors (interference-present displays) than when targets were presented alone (interference-absent displays). Critically, we then showed that this amplification of cueing effects in the presence of interference is eliminated when strong crowding hampers individuation of the targets and distractors. Likewise, when targets were embedded within a noise mask that did not evoke the percept of an individuated distractor, the attention effects were equivalent across noise and lone-target displays. Thus, we conclude that exogenous spatial attention resolves interference in an object-based fashion that depends on the perception of individuated targets and distractors.

SUBMITTER: Scolari M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6635026 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Object-based biased competition during covert spatial orienting.

Scolari Miranda M Awh Edward E

Attention, perception & psychophysics 20190701 5

Biased-competition models assert that spatial attention facilitates visual perception by biasing competitive interactions in favor of relevant input. In line with this view, past work has shown that the benefits of covert spatial attention are greatest when targets must compete with interfering stimuli. Here we propose a boundary condition for the resolution of interference via exogenous attention: Attention resolves visual interference between targets and distractors, but only when they can be ...[more]

PMID: 30684205

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Project description:One function of spatial attention is to enable goal-directed interactions with the environment through the allocation of neural resources to motivationally relevant parts of space. Studies have shown that responses are enhanced when spatial attention is predictively biased towards locations where significant events are expected to occur. Previous studies suggest that the ability to bias attention predictively is related to posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activation [Small, D.M., et al., 2003. The posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex mediate the anticipatory allocation of spatial attention. Neuroimage 18, 633-41]. Sleep deprivation (SD) impairs selective attention and reduces PCC activity [Thomas, M., et al., 2000. Neural basis of alertness and cognitive performance impairments during sleepiness. I. Effects of 24 h of sleep deprivation on waking human regional brain activity. J. Sleep Res. 9, 335-352]. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that SD would affect PCC function and alter the ability to predictively allocate spatial attention. Seven healthy, young adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) following normal rest and 34-36 h of SD while performing a task in which attention was shifted in response to peripheral targets preceded by spatially informative (valid), misleading (invalid), or uninformative (neutral) cues. When rested, but not when sleep-deprived, subjects responded more quickly to targets that followed valid cues than those after neutral or invalid cues. Brain activity during validly cued trials with a reaction time benefit was compared to activity in trials with no benefit. PCC activation was greater during trials with a reaction time benefit following normal rest. In contrast, following SD, reaction time benefits were associated with activation in the left intraparietal sulcus, a region associated with receptivity to stimuli at unexpected locations. These changes may render sleep-deprived individuals less able to anticipate the locations of upcoming events, and more susceptible to distraction by stimuli at irrelevant locations.

Dataset Information

Object-based biased competition during covert spatial orienting.

Publications

Object-based biased competition during covert spatial orienting.

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