title: Attentional Modulation of Change Detection ERP Components by Peripheral Retro-Cueing.
abstract: Change detection is essential for visual perception and performance in our environment. However, observers often miss changes that should be easily noticed. A failure in any of the processes involved in conscious detection (encoding the pre-change display, maintenance of that information within working memory, and comparison of the pre and post change displays) can lead to change blindness. Given that unnoticed visual changes in a scene can be easily detected once attention is drawn to them, it has been suggested that attention plays an important role on visual awareness. In the present study, we used behavioral and electrophysiological (ERPs) measures to study whether the manipulation of retrospective spatial attention affects performance and modulates brain activity related to the awareness of a change. To that end, exogenous peripheral cues were presented during the delay period (retro-cues) between the first and the second array using a one-shot change detection task. Awareness of a change was associated with a posterior negative amplitude shift around 228-292 ms ("Visual Awareness Negativity"), which was independent of retrospective spatial attention, as it was elicited to both validly and invalidly cued change trials. Change detection was also associated with a larger positive deflection around 420-580 ms ("Late Positivity"), but only when the peripheral retro-cues correctly predicted the change. Present results confirm that the early and late ERP components related to change detection can be functionally dissociated through manipulations of exogenous retro-cueing using a change blindness paradigm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pazo-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roca-Fernández
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco-Javier
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez-Domínguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Amenedo
keywords: ERPs; change blindness; change detection; late positivity; peripheral cues; retro-cueing; visual awareness negativity