@article{e2d098144fa144b985eb74c7f01cd46a,
title = "Activity in primary visual cortex predicts performance in a visual detection task",
abstract = "Visual attention can affect both neural activity and behavior in humans. To quantify possible links between the two, we measured activity in early visual cortex (V1, V2 and V3) during a challenging pattern-detection task. Activity was dominated by a large response that was independent of the presence or absence of the stimulus pattern. The measured activity quantitatively predicted the subject's pattern-detection performance: when activity was greater, the subject was more likely to correctly discern the presence or absence of the pattern. This stimulus-independent activity had several characteristics of visual attention, suggesting that attentional mechanisms modulate activity in early visual cortex, and that this attention-related activity strongly influences performance.",
author = "David Ress and Backus, {Benjamin T.} and Heeger, {David J.}",
note = "Funding Information: Our results lead us to hypothesize that attention, cortical activity and behavioral performance are linked. The base response probably reflects the activity of attentional mechanisms. This hypothesis is supported by the dependence on task difficulty and by the spatial selectivity of the base response, two defining characteristics of visual attention. In macaque monkeys, attention can cause an increase in the baseline firing rates of neurons in V2 and V4 (ref. 13), secondary visual areas that receive projections from V1. We suggest, therefore, that the base response that we observed reflects a small increase in the baseline firing rates of a very large number of neurons whose receptive fields overlap the stimulus annulus. Increasing baseline firing rates may potentiate an enhancement in the stimulus-evoked responses, which could improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the sensory representation of the stimulus by biasing neurons into a more sensitive segment of their operating range12. We attribute the contingency between V1 activity and performance to trial-to-trial fluctuations in attention (for example, lapses in attention or spatial uncertainty). We suggest that variability in the observers{\textquoteright} attentional state causes variability in the baseline firing rates, which, in turn, causes variability in performance.",
year = "2000",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1038/78856",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "3",
pages = "940--945",
journal = "Nature Neuroscience",
issn = "1097-6256",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "9",
}