TY - JOUR
T1 - Attention Reorients Periodically
AU - Dugué, Laura
AU - Roberts, Mariel
AU - Carrasco, Marisa
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NIH (RO1-EY016200) to M.C., the FYSSEN Foundation to L.D., and NSF (DGE 1342536) to M.R. We want to thank Rufin VanRullen as well as the members of the M.C. lab for constructive comments on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Reorienting of voluntary attention enables the processing of stimuli at previously unattended locations. Although studies have identified a ventral fronto-parietal network underlying attention [1, 2], little is known about whether and how early visual areas are involved in involuntary [3, 4] and even less in voluntary [5] reorienting, and their temporal dynamics are unknown. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the occipital cortex to interfere with attentional reorienting and study its role and temporal dynamics in this process. Human observers performed an orientation discrimination task, with either valid or invalid attention cueing, across a range of stimulus contrasts. Valid cueing induced a behavioral response gain increase, higher asymptotic performance for attended than unattended locations. During subsequent TMS sessions, observers performed the same task, with high stimulus contrast. Based on phosphene mapping, TMS double pulses were applied at one of various delays to a consistent brain location in retinotopic areas (V1/V2), corresponding to the evoked signal of the target or distractor, in a valid or invalid trial. Thus, the stimulation was identical for the four experimental conditions (valid/invalid cue condition × target/distractor-stimulated). TMS modulation of the target and distractor were both periodic (5 Hz, theta) and out of phase with respect to each other in invalid trials only, when attention had to be disengaged from the distractor and reoriented to the target location. Reorientation of voluntary attention periodically involves V1/V2 at the theta frequency. These results suggest that TMS probes theta phase-reset by attentional reorienting and help link periodic sampling in time and attention reorienting in space.
AB - Reorienting of voluntary attention enables the processing of stimuli at previously unattended locations. Although studies have identified a ventral fronto-parietal network underlying attention [1, 2], little is known about whether and how early visual areas are involved in involuntary [3, 4] and even less in voluntary [5] reorienting, and their temporal dynamics are unknown. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the occipital cortex to interfere with attentional reorienting and study its role and temporal dynamics in this process. Human observers performed an orientation discrimination task, with either valid or invalid attention cueing, across a range of stimulus contrasts. Valid cueing induced a behavioral response gain increase, higher asymptotic performance for attended than unattended locations. During subsequent TMS sessions, observers performed the same task, with high stimulus contrast. Based on phosphene mapping, TMS double pulses were applied at one of various delays to a consistent brain location in retinotopic areas (V1/V2), corresponding to the evoked signal of the target or distractor, in a valid or invalid trial. Thus, the stimulation was identical for the four experimental conditions (valid/invalid cue condition × target/distractor-stimulated). TMS modulation of the target and distractor were both periodic (5 Hz, theta) and out of phase with respect to each other in invalid trials only, when attention had to be disengaged from the distractor and reoriented to the target location. Reorientation of voluntary attention periodically involves V1/V2 at the theta frequency. These results suggest that TMS probes theta phase-reset by attentional reorienting and help link periodic sampling in time and attention reorienting in space.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.046
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.046
M3 - Article
C2 - 27265395
AN - SCOPUS:84976483403
VL - 26
SP - 1595
EP - 1601
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 12
ER -