While there is ample evidence for the ability to selectively attend to
where
in space and
when
in time a relevant event might occur, it remains poorly understood whether spatial and temporal ...attention operate independently or interactively to optimize behavior. To elucidate this important issue, we provide a narrative review of the literature investigating the relationship between the two. The studies were organized based on the attentional manipulation employed (endogenous vs. exogenous) and the type of task (detection vs. discrimination). Although the reviewed findings depict a complex scenario, three aspects appear particularly important in promoting independent or interactive effects of spatial and temporal attention: task demands, attentional manipulation, and their combination. Overall, the present review provides key insights into the relationship between spatial and temporal attention and identifies some critical gaps that need to be addressed by future research.
► Endogenous and exogenous spatial attention can be behaviorally dissociated. ► They are implemented in overlapping although partially segregated brain circuits. ► They constitute two independent ...attentional systems.
Orienting of spatial attention is a family of phylogenetically old mechanisms developed to select information for further processing. Information can be selected via top-down or endogenous mechanisms, depending on the goals of the observers or on the task at hand. Moreover, salient and potentially dangerous events also attract spatial attention via bottom-up or exogenous mechanisms, allowing a rapid and efficient reaction to unexpected but important events. Fronto-parietal brain networks have been demonstrated to play an important role in supporting spatial attentional orienting, although there is no consensus on whether there is a single attentional system supporting both endogenous and exogenous attention, or two anatomical and functionally different attentional systems. In the present paper we review behavioral evidence emphasizing the differential characteristics of both systems, as well as their possible interactions for the control of the final orienting response. Behavioral studies reporting qualitative differences between the effects of both systems as well as double dissociations of the effects of endogenous and exogenous attention on information processing, suggest that they constitute two independent attentional systems, rather than a single one. Recent models of attentional orienting in humans have put forward the hypothesis of a dorsal fronto-parietal network for orienting spatial attention, and a more ventral fronto-parietal network for detecting unexpected but behaviorally relevant events. Non-invasive neurostimulation techniques, as well as neuropsychological data, suggest that endogenous and exogenous attention are implemented in overlapping, although partially segregated, brain circuits. Although more research is needed in order to refine our anatomical and functional knowledge of the brain circuits underlying spatial attention, we conclude that endogenous and exogenous spatial orienting constitute two independent attentional systems, with different behavioral effects, and partially distinct neural substrates.
This paper is conceived as a guide that will describe the very well known Spatial Orienting paradigm, used to explore attentional processes in healthy individuals as well as in people suffering from ...psychiatric disorders and brain-damaged patients. The paradigm was developed in the late 1970s, and since then, it has been used in thousands of attentional studies. In this review, we attempt to describe, the paradigm for the naïf reader, and explain in detail when is it used, which variables are usually manipulated, how to interpret its results, and how can it be adapted to different populations and methodologies. The main goal of this review is to provide a practical guide to researchers who have never used the paradigm that will help them design their experiments, as a function of their theoretical and experimental needs. We also focus on how to adapt the paradigm to different technologies (such as event-related potentials, functional resonance imaging, or transcranial magnetic stimulation), and to different populations by presenting an example of its use in brain-damaged patients.
Adaptive behavior requires the ability to orient attention to the moment in time at which a relevant event is likely to occur. Temporal orienting of attention has been consistently associated with ...activation of the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in prior fMRI studies. However, a direct test of its causal involvement in temporal orienting is still lacking. The present study tackled this issue by transiently perturbing left IPS activity with either online (Experiment 1) or offline (Experiment 2) transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In both experiments, participants performed a temporal orienting task, alternating between blocks in which a temporal cue predicted when a subsequent target would appear and blocks in which a neutral cue provided no information about target timing. In Experiment 1 we used an online TMS protocol, aiming to interfere specifically with cue-related temporal processes, whereas in Experiment 2 we employed an offline protocol whereby participants performed the temporal orienting task before and after receiving TMS. The right IPS and/or the vertex were stimulated as active control regions. While results replicated the canonical pattern of temporal orienting effects on reaction time, with faster responses for temporal than neutral trials, these effects were not modulated by TMS over the left IPS (as compared to the right IPS and/or vertex regions) regardless of the online or offline protocol used. Overall, these findings challenge the causal role of the left IPS in temporal orienting of attention inviting further research on its underlying neural substrates.
Embodied cognition theories predict a functional involvement of sensorimotor processes in language understanding. In a preregistered experiment, we tested this idea by investigating whether ...interfering with primary motor cortex (M1) activation can change how people construe meaning from action language. Participants were presented with sentences describing actions (e.g., "turning off the light”) and asked to choose between two interpretations of their meaning, one more concrete (e.g., "flipping a switch") and another more abstract (e.g., "going to sleep"). Prior to this task, participants’ M1 was disrupted using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The results yielded strong evidence against the idea that M1-rTMS affects meaning construction (BF01 > 30). Additional analyses and control experiments suggest that the absence of effect cannot be accounted for by failure to inhibit M1, lack of construct validity of the task, or lack of power to detect a small effect. In sum, these results do not support a causal role for primary motor cortex in building meaning from action language.
Display omitted
•We investigated whether M1 inhibition changes the meaning of action language.•rTMS over M1 did not significantly alter meaning construction from action sentences.•Potential confounds (e.g., lack of task validity) cannot account for by the null effect.•Present results challenge a causal role of M1 in action language comprehension.
Influential functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-based models have involved a dorsal frontoparietal network in the orienting of both endogenous and exogenous attention, and a ventral system ...in attentional reorienting to task-relevant events. Nonetheless, given the low temporal resolution and susceptibility to epiphenomenal activations of fMRI, such depictions remain highly debated. We hereby benefited from the high temporal resolution and causal power of event-related transcranial magnetic stimulation to explore the implications of key dorsal and ventral parietal regions in those two types of attention. We provide for the first time causal evidence of right intraparietal sulcus involvement in both types of attentional orienting, while we link the temporoparietal junction with the orienting of exogenous but not endogenous spatial attention.
Abstract
How do attentional networks influence conscious perception? To answer this question, we used magnetoencephalography in human participants and assessed the effects of spatially nonpredictive ...or predictive supra-threshold peripheral cues on the conscious perception of near-threshold Gabors. Three main results emerged. (i) As compared with invalid cues, both nonpredictive and predictive valid cues increased conscious detection. Yet, only predictive cues shifted the response criterion toward a more liberal decision (i.e. willingness to report the presence of a target under conditions of greater perceptual uncertainty) and affected target contrast leading to 50% detections. (ii) Conscious perception following valid predictive cues was associated to enhanced activity in frontoparietal networks. These responses were lateralized to the left hemisphere during attentional orienting and to the right hemisphere during target processing. The involvement of frontoparietal networks occurred earlier in valid than in invalid trials, a possible neural marker of the cost of re-orienting attention. (iii) When detected targets were preceded by invalid predictive cues, and thus reorienting to the target was required, neural responses occurred in left hemisphere temporo-occipital regions during attentional orienting, and in right hemisphere anterior insular and temporo-occipital regions during target processing. These results confirm and specify the role of frontoparietal networks in modulating conscious processing and detail how invalid orienting of spatial attention disrupts conscious processing.
Mind-wandering is the occasional distraction we experience while performing a cognitive task. It arises without any external precedent, varies over time, and interferes with the processing of sensory ...information. Here, we asked whether the transition from the on-task state to mind-wandering is a gradual process or an abrupt event. We developed a new experimental approach, based on the continuous, online assessment of individual psychophysical performance. Probe questions were asked whenever response times (RTs) exceeded 2 standard deviations from the participant's average RT. Results showed that mind-wandering reports were generally preceded by slower RTs, as compared to trials preceding on-task reports. Mind-wandering episodes could be reliably predicted from the response time difference between the last and the second-to-last trials. Thus, mind-wandering reports follow an abrupt increase in behavioral variability, lasting between 2.5 and 10 seconds.
Arrows and gaze stimuli lead to opposite spatial congruency effects. While standard congruency effects are observed for arrows (faster responses for congruent conditions), responses are faster when ...eye-gaze stimuli are presented on the opposite side of the gazed-at location (incongruent trials), leading to a reversed congruency effect (RCE). Here, we explored the effects of implicit vs. explicit processing of arrows and eye-gaze direction. Participants were required to identify the direction (explicit task) or the colour (implicit task) of left or right looking/pointing gaze or arrows, presented to either the left or right of the fixation point. When participants responded to the direction of stimuli, standard congruency effects for arrows and RCE for eye-gaze stimuli were observed. However, when participants responded to the colour of stimuli, no congruency effects were observed. These results suggest that it is necessary to explicitly pay attention to the direction of eye-gaze and arrows for the congruency effect to occur. The same pattern of data was observed when participants responded either manually or verbally, demonstrating that manual motor components are not responsible for the results observed. These findings are not consistent with some hypotheses previously proposed to explain the RCE observed with eye-gaze stimuli and, therefore, call for an alternative plausible hypothesis.
In real life, many objects catch our attention involuntarily or exogenously. Exogenous attention occurs fast and its effects are short-lived. In the laboratory, when attentional orientation is ...studied, both valid and invalid attentional signals are used: the valid ones direct the attention to a location where something relevant is going to appear. The invalid ones occur in a location where nothing relevant is going to happen. Usually, performance is improved when valid signals rather than invalid ones are presented. This work is novel in that it explores the effects of attentional capture and driving experience in situations of day-to-day driving while participants carry out a Hazard Prediction task. We created new Hazard Prediction (HPr) and Risk Estimation (RE) tests when driving by selecting 48 short videos recorded in a realistic way from the perspective of a car driver. We created valid and invalid trials by selecting videos in which a what?? was presented in the same spatial location as the one where the hazard was beginning to develop or in a different location. Simple situations, with only one developing hazard, were also presented. A total of 92 participants (30 experienced drivers, 32 novices and 30 with no experience) were placed in the position of the driver and answered the questions: 1) What will happen after the video is cut? 2) To what extent do you consider this situation risky? The results from the Hazard Prediction test replicate the attentional capture effect in complex driving situations, with invalid trials obtaining the worst results, followed by valid and simple ones. Participants with experience obtained better scores than novices, and novices were better than drivers without experience. No interaction between attentional orientation and experience was found, suggesting the obligatory and automatic nature of orientation processes, which do not appear to be compensated for by driving experience. No significant differences were found for the Risk Estimation test.
•Development and validation of a new Hazard Prediction test.•The attentional capture effect is replicated in complex driving situations.•Performance was impaired when two hazards were presented.•Invalid trials obtaining the worst results.•This test discriminates between inexperienced, novice and experienced drivers. .
PDF
