Attention driven phantom vision: measuring the sensory strength of attentional templates and their relation to visual mental imagery and aphantasia.

ABSTRACT: When we search for an object in an array or anticipate attending to a future object, we create an 'attentional template' of the object. The definitions of attentional templates and visual imagery share many similarities as well as many of the same neural characteristics. However, the phenomenology of these attentional templates and their neural similarities to visual imagery and perception are rarely, if ever discussed. Here, we investigate the relationship between these two forms of non-retinal phantom vision through the use of the binocular rivalry technique, which allows us to measure the sensory strength of attentional templates in the absence of concurrent perceptual stimuli. We find that attentional templates correlate with both feature-based attention and visual imagery. Attentional

SUBMITTER: Keogh R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7741074 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature