A physiological correlate of the 'spotlight' of visual attention.
Here we identify a neural correlate of the ability to precisely direct visual attention to locations other than the center of gaze. Human subjects performed a task requiring shifts of visual attention (but not of gaze) from one location to the next within a dense array of targets and distracters while functional MRI was used to map corresponding displacements of neural activation within visual cortex. The cortical topography of the purely attention-driven activity precisely matched the topography of activity evoked by the cued targets when presented in isolation. Such retinotopic mapping of attention-related activation was found in primary visual cortex, as well as in dorsomedial and ventral occipital visual areas previously implicated in processing the attended target features. These results identify a physiological basis for the effects of spatially directed visual attention.
Brefczynski
J A
JA
Department of Cellular Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 53226, USA.
DeYoe
E A
EA
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014794:Visual Fields; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*