title: When endogenous spatial attention improves conscious perception: effects of alerting and bottom-up activation.
abstract: Recent studies have consistently demonstrated that conscious perception interacts with exogenous attentional orienting, but it can be dissociated from endogenous attentional orienting (Chica Lasaponara, et al., 2011; Wyart & Tallon-Baudry, 2008). It has been hypothesized that enhanced conscious processing at exogenously attended locations results from a synergistic action of spatial orienting, bottom-up activation, and phasic alerting induced by the abrupt onset of the exogenous cue (Chica, Lasaponara, et al., 2011). Instead, as endogenous cues need more time to be interpreted, the phasic alerting they produce may have dissipated when the target appears. Furthermore, endogenous cues presumably elicit a weak bottom-up activation at the cued location. Consistent with these hypotheses, we observed that endogenous attention modulated conscious perception, but only when phasic alerting or bottom-up activation was increased. Results are discussed in the context of recent theoretical models of consciousness (Dehaene, Changeux, Naccache, Sackur, & Sergent, 2006).
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Institute (CIMCYC), Spain. Electronic address: fabianobottaster@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fabiano
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Botta
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Institute (CIMCYC), Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lupiáñez
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Institute (CIMCYC), Spain.
authors.forename: Ana B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Chica
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bottom-up activation; Conscious perception; Endogenous; Exogenous; Phasic alerting; Spatial attention