Neural correlates of exemplar novelty processing under different spatial attention conditions.
The detection of novel events and their identification is a basic prerequisite in a rapidly changing environment. Recently, the processing of novelty has been shown to rely on the hippocampus and to be associated with activity in reward-related areas. The present study investigated the influence of spatial attention on neural processing of novel relative to frequently presented standard and target stimuli. Never-before-seen Mandelbrot-fractals absent of semantic content were employed as stimulus material. Consistent with current theories, novelty activated a widespread network of brain areas including the hippocampus. No activity, however, could be observed in reward-related areas with the novel stimuli absent of a semantic meaning employed here. In the perceptual part of the novelty-processing network a region in the lingual gyrus was found to specifically process novel events when they occurred outside the focus of spatial attention. These findings indicate that the initial detection of unexpected novel events generally occurs in specialized perceptual areas within the ventral visual stream, whereas activation of reward-related areas appears to be restricted to events that do possess a semantic content indicative of the biological relevance of the stimulus.
Department of Neurology and Centre for Advanced Imaging, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany. christian.stoppel@med.ovgu.de
Christian Michael
CM
Stoppel
Carsten Nicolas
CN
Boehler
Hendrik
H
Strumpf
Hans-Jochen
HJ
Heinze
Jens Max
JM
Hopf
Emrah
E
Düzel
Mircea Ariel
MA
Schoenfeld
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
D010100:Oxygen