Neural correlates of within-level and across-level attention to multiple compound stimuli.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to investigate the neural mechanisms of attention to the same or different levels of two compound letters presented concurrently in the left and right visual fields, respectively. Relative to the condition when attention was allocated to the global level of one compound stimulus and the local level of another one (across-level attention), attention to the same level of the two compound stimuli (within-level attention) increased an early positivity between 100 and 140 ms (P1) over the occipito-parietal cortex. A long-latency positivity between 320 and 560 ms (P3) over the central-parietal area was also increased in the within-level relative to across-level attention conditions. The ERP results suggest that, relative to across-level attention, within-level attention to multiple compound stimuli facilitates both early sensory-perceptual processing and late process of stimulus evaluation and identification in hierarchical analysis.
Department of Psychology, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China. shan@pku.edu.cn
Shihui
S
Han
Yi
Y
Jiang
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*