title: Oscillatory recruitment of bilateral visual cortex during spatial attention to competing rhythmic inputs.
abstract: Selective attention uses temporal regularity of relevant inputs to bias the phase of ongoing population-level neuronal oscillations. This phase entrainment streamlines processing, allowing attended information to arrive at moments of high neural excitability. How entrainment resolves competition between spatially segregated inputs during visuospatial tasks is not yet established. Using high-density electroencephalography in humans, a bilateral entrainment response to the rhythm (1.3 or 1.5 Hz) of an attended stimulation stream was observed, concurrent with a considerably weaker contralateral entrainment to a competing rhythm. That ipsilateral visual areas strongly entrained to the attended stimulus is notable because competitive inputs to these regions were being driven at an entirely different rhythm. Strong modulations of phase locking and weak modulations of single-trial power suggest that entrainment was primarily driven by phase-alignment of ongoing oscillatory activity. In addition, interhemispheric differences in entrained phase were found to be modulated by attended hemifield, implying that the bilateral nature of the response reflected a functional flow of information between hemispheres. This modulation was strongest at the third of at least four harmonics that were strongly entrained. Ipsilateral increases in alpha-band (8-12 Hz) power were also observed during bilateral entrainment, reflecting suppression of the ignored stimulation stream. Furthermore, both entrainment and alpha lateralization significantly affected task performance. We conclude that oscillatory entrainment is a functionally relevant mechanism that synchronizes endogenous activity across the cortical hierarchy to resolve spatial competition. We further speculate that concurrent suppression of ignored input might facilitate the widespread propagation of attended information during spatial attention.
authors: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10461, Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10031.
authors: Michael J
authors: MJ
authors: Gray
authors: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10461, The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Bronx, New York 10461, and.
authors: Hans-Peter
authors: HP
authors: Frey
authors: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10461, The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Bronx, New York 10461, and.
authors: Tommy J
authors: TJ
authors: Wilson
authors: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10461, Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10031, The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Bronx, New York 10461, and The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, New York 10962 john.foxe@einstein.yu.edu.
authors: John J
authors: JJ
authors: Foxe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: attention; biased competition; delta band; entrainment; harmonics; oscillations