Title
Causal involvement of visual area MT in global feature-based enhancement but not contingent attentional capture.
Abstract
When visual attention is set for a particular target feature, such as color or shape, neural responses to that feature are enhanced across the visual field. This global feature-based enhancement is hypothesized to underlie the contingent attentional capture effect, in which task-irrelevant items with the target feature capture spatial attention. In humans, however, different cortical regions have been implicated in global feature-based enhancement and contingent capture. Here, we applied intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) to assess the causal roles of two regions of extrastriate cortex – right area MT and the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) – in both global feature-based enhancement and contingent capture. We recorded cortical activity using EEG while participants monitored centrally for targets defined by color and ignored peripheral checkerboards that matched the distractor or target color. In central vision, targets were preceded by colored cues designed to capture attention. Stimuli flickered at unique frequencies, evoking distinct cortical oscillations. Analyses of these oscillations and behavioral performance revealed contingent capture in central vision and global feature-based enhancement in the periphery. Stimulation of right area MT selectively increased global feature-based enhancement, but did not influence contingent attentional capture. By contrast, stimulation of the right TPJ left both processes unaffected. Our results reveal a causal role for the right area MT in feature-based attention, and suggest that global feature-based enhancement does not underlie the contingent capture effect.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.019
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Area MT,Frequency tagging,Frontoparietal network,Selective attention,Temporoparietal junction,Transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation,Extrastriate cortex,Psychology,Cognitive psychology,Temporoparietal junction,Visual attention,Stimulus (physiology),Feature based,Visual field,Electroencephalography
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
118
1053-8119
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
10
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
David R. Painter100.34
Paul E. Dux2134.98
Jason B Mattingley38912.18