Interactions between voluntary and involuntary attention modulate the quality and temporal dynamics of visual processing.

ABSTRACT: Successfully navigating a dynamic environment requires the efficient distribution of finite neural resources. Voluntary (endogenous) covert spatial attention selectively allocates those processing resources to goal-relevant locations in the visual scene in the absence of eye movements. However, the allocation of spatial attention is not always voluntary; abrupt onsets in the visual periphery automatically enhance processing of nearby stimuli (exogenous attention). In dynamic environments, exogenous events and internal goals likely compete to determine the distribution of attention, but how such competition is resolved is not well understood. To investigate how exogenous events interact with the concurrent allocation of voluntary attention, we used a speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure

SUBMITTER: Grubb MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4326639 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature