Attention alters orientation processing in the human lateral geniculate nucleus.
Orientation selectivity is a cornerstone property of vision, commonly believed to emerge in the primary visual cortex. We found that reliable orientation information could be detected even earlier, in the human lateral geniculate nucleus, and that attentional feedback selectively altered these orientation responses. This attentional modulation may allow the visual system to modify incoming feature-specific signals at the earliest possible processing site.
1] Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and the Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. [2] Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Sam
S
Ling
Department of Psychology and the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Michael S
MS
Pratte
Department of Psychology and the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Frank
F
Tong
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult