title: Unmasking the contribution of low-level features to the guidance of attention.
abstract: The role of low-level stimulus-driven control in the guidance of overt visual attention has been difficult to establish because low- and high-level visual content are spatially correlated within natural visual stimuli. Here we show that impairment of parietal cortical areas, either permanently by a lesion or reversibly by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), leads to fixation of locations with higher values of low-level features as compared to control subjects or in a no-rTMS condition. Moreover, this unmasking of stimulus-driven control crucially depends on the intrahemispheric balance between top-down and bottom-up cortical areas. This result suggests that although in normal behavior high-level features might exert a strong influence, low-level features do contribute to guide visual selection during the exploration of complex natural stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Universität Osnabrück, Institut für Kognitionswissenschaft, Albrechtstr. 28, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany. jossando@uos.de
authors.forename: José P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ossandón
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Onat
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cazzoli
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nyffeler
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Müri
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult