title: Single-trial classification of parallel pre-attentive and serial attentive processes using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: Theories of perception have proposed a basic distinction between parallel pre-attentive and serial attentive modes of processing. However, chronometric measures are often ambiguous in separating parallel and serial processes. We have used the activity of attention-related regions of the human brain, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, to separate parallel from serial processes at the single-trial level in a visual quantification task. In this task, some have suggested the deployment of two qualitatively different processes, a fast parallel 'subitizing' for sets of one, two or three objects and a slow serial counting for larger sets. Our results indicate that attention-related regions of the posterior parietal and frontal cortices show a sudden increase in activity only from numerosity four onwards, confirming the parallel-serial dichotomy of subitizing and counting. Moreover, using the presence or absence of attentional shifts, as inferred from the activation of posterior parietal regions, we successfully predict whether, on a given trial, subjects deployed a serial exploration of the display or a parallel apprehension. Beyond the subitizing/counting debate, this approach may prove useful to probe the attentional demands of other cognitive tasks.
authors.affiliation: Inserm U562 NeuroImagerie Cognitive, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, CEA/DRM/DSV, 4 Place du General Leclerc, F-91401 Orsay cedex, France. piazza@shfj.cea.fr
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piazza
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giacomini
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Le Bihan
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology