title: Global feature-based attention for motion and color.
abstract: We used a divided attention psychophysical task to test the hypothesis that visual attention to a stimulus feature(1) facilitates the processing of other stimuli sharing the same feature. Performance on a dual-task was significantly better when human observers divided attention across two spatially separate stimuli sharing a common feature (same direction of motion or same color) compared to opposing features. This attentional effect was dependent upon the presence of competing stimuli. These results are consistent with a spatially global feature-based mechanism of attention that increases the response of cortical neurons tuned to an attended feature throughout the visual field.
authors.affiliation: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Systems Neurobiology Laboratory--B, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sàenz
authors.forename: Giedrius T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Buraĉas
authors.forename: Geoffrey M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Boynton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009039:Motion Perception; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics