Preparatory attention to visual features primarily relies on non-sensory representation.

ABSTRACT: Prior knowledge of behaviorally relevant information promotes preparatory attention before the appearance of stimuli. A key question is how our brain represents the attended information during preparation. A sensory template hypothesis assumes that preparatory signals evoke neural activity patterns that resembled the perception of the attended stimuli, whereas a non-sensory, abstract template hypothesis assumes that preparatory signals reflect the abstraction of attended stimuli. To test these hypotheses, we used fMRI and multivariate analysis to characterize neural activity patterns when human participants were prepared to attend a feature and then select it from a compound stimulus. In an fMRI experiment using basic visual feature (motion direction), we observed reliable decoding of the

SUBMITTER: Gong M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9758135 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature