title: Neuronal Modulations in Visual Cortex Are Associated with Only One of Multiple Components of Attention.
abstract: Neuronal signals related to visual attention are found in widespread brain regions, and these signals are generally assumed to participate in a common mechanism of attention. However, the behavioral effects of attention in detection can be separated into two distinct components: spatially selective shifts in either the criterion or sensitivity of the subject. Here we show that a paradigm used by many single-neuron studies of attention conflates behavioral changes in the subject's criterion and sensitivity. Then, using a task designed to dissociate these two components, we found that multiple aspects of attention-related neuronal modulations in area V4 of monkey visual cortex corresponded to behavioral shifts in sensitivity, but not criterion. This result suggests that separate components of attention are associated with signals in different brain regions and that attention is not a unitary process in the brain, but instead consists of distinct neurobiological mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: thomas.zhihao.luo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Thomas Zhihao
authors.initials: TZ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: John H R
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Maunsell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*