Featural and temporal attention selectively enhance task-appropriate representations in human primary visual cortex.

ABSTRACT: Our perceptions are often shaped by focusing our attention towards specific features or periods of time irrespective of location. Here we explore the physiological bases of these non-spatial forms of attention by imaging brain activity while subjects perform a challenging change-detection task. The task employs a continuously varying visual stimulus that, for any moment in time, selectively activates functionally distinct subpopulations of primary visual cortex (V1) neurons. When subjects are cued to the timing and nature of the change, the mapping of orientation preference across V1 systematically shifts towards the cued stimulus just prior to its appearance. A simple linear model can explain this shift: attentional changes are selectively targeted towards neural subpopulations, represent

SUBMITTER: Warren SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4349356 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature