VISUAL ATTENTION

Revealing the neural mechanisms of attentional selection in the human visual cortex

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Imagine you are watching a soccer game, carefully attending to the player on your favourite team to determine which direction he will go. In studies on visual perception, the player is considered an “object”, which has multiple features: direction of motion, the colour of his outfit, etc. Can you voluntarily restrict attention to just the player’s direction of motion, the feature that is relevant for your decision, or does your attention unintentionally spread to also enhance the particular shade of orange in his shirt? Major theories of visual attention assume that attending to one feature of a visual object automatically results in selection of the whole object, including task-irrelevant features, but are they correct in assuming that the complete object comprises the basic unit of selection? The overall aim of this proposal is to reveal the neural mechanisms of selective attention by addressing this issue. I will focus on three major research questions: what is the unit of selective attention, how is attentional selection implemented in the visual cortex, and how does selective attention impact perceptual learning? I will address these questions using a combination of behavioural, computational modelling, and neuroimaging techniques, together with novel “decoding” methods to analyze brain activity patterns. This multifaceted approach will allow me to rigorously investigate how cortical selectivity for visual features changes with top-down attention, and to address these unresolved questions regarding the neural mechanisms of human visual attention.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Selective attention can modulate perception and influence decisions. An EU-funded study sheds light on neural mechanisms of attention that are of intrinsic interest to the neuroscience community and practical interest to numerous industries.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Many studies of visual perception and attention suggest that even when focusing on one feature, attention inadvertently reverts to the complete object and its entire set of features. For example, when watching football, the point of interest is the direction in which one's favourite player is moving. However, attention can unintentionally move to other features, such as the colour of a player's shirt.

The EU-funded research project 'Revealing the neural mechanisms of attentional selection in the human visual cortex' (VISUAL ATTENTION) studied the neural mechanisms of selective attention taking advantage of behavioural, theoretical and neuroimaging techniques together with novel decoding methods. Scientists set out to determine how cortical selectivity for visual features is modulated by top-down or goal-driven attention.

Results indicated that top-down attention can selectively enhance the processing of a single task-relevant feature, such as direction of motion, and that attention does not have to spread to task-irrelevant features. Further, the effect of attention on neural responses seems to depend on the type of attention being used.

The research also shows that extensive training on a perceptual task can refine the neural representation of behaviourally relevant information. In particular, visual attention may play a critical role in mediating the effect of training.

These results provide important new insights into the neural basis of selective attention. They have significant implications for theories of visual attention and cortical visual function.

VISUAL ATTENTION outcomes have revealed important neural mechanisms of visual sensory processing and the ways in which attention modulates them. Aside from basic scientific interest regarding how the brain works, such studies are of key interest and practical use to advertising agencies and manufacturers, video game developers and producers of educational media.