title: Attentional Selection Accompanied by Eye Vergence as Revealed by Event-Related Brain Potentials.
abstract: Neural mechanisms of attention allow selective sensory information processing. Top-down deployment of visual-spatial attention is conveyed by cortical feedback connections from frontal regions to lower sensory areas modulating late stimulus responses. A recent study reported the occurrence of small eye vergence during orienting top-down attention. Here we assessed a possible link between vergence and attention by comparing visual event related potentials (vERPs) to a cue stimulus that induced attention to shift towards the target location to the vERPs to a no-cue stimulus that did not trigger orienting attention. The results replicate the findings of eye vergence responses during orienting attention and show that the strength and time of eye vergence coincide with the onset and strength of the vERPs when subjects oriented attention. Our findings therefore support the idea that eye vergence relates to and possibly has a role in attentional selection.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sole Puig
authors.affiliation: Dept of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Neuroscience Inst, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Pediatric Research Inst, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep Marco
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pallarés
authors.affiliation: Dept of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perez Zapata
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Research Inst, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Puigcerver
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Dept, Consorci Sanitari del Maresme, Mataro, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cañete
authors.affiliation: Dept of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Neuroscience Inst, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Pediatric Research Inst, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.|ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9328-0096
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Supèr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult