title: Prediction and unconscious attention operate synergistically to facilitate stimulus processing: An fMRI study.
abstract: There is considerable evidence that prediction and attention aid perception. However, little is known about the possible neural mechanisms underlying the impact of prediction and unconscious attention on perception, probably due to the relative neglect of unconscious attention in scholarly literature. Here, we addressed this issue using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We adopted a variant of the double-cue paradigm, in which prediction and attention were factorially manipulated by two separate cues (prediction and attention cues). To manipulate consciousness, the attention cues were presented subliminally and supraliminally. Behaviorally, we reported an unconscious-attended effect in the predictable trials and a conscious-attended effect in the unpredictable trials. On the neural level, it was shown that prediction and unconscious attention interacted in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). More specifically, there was a significantly decreased activation in dlPFC for predictable relative to unpredictable stimuli in the unconscious-attended trials, but not in the unconscious-unattended trials. This result suggests that prediction and unconscious attention operate synergistically to facilitate stimulus processing. This is further corroborated by the subsequent functional connectivity analysis, which revealed increased functional connectivity between the left dlPFC and the premotor cortex for predictable versus unpredictable stimuli in the unconscious-attended trials.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ran
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. Electronic address: chenxu@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637002, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: School of Education Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; Prediction; Predictive coding; Unconscious attention; fMRI