Previously rewarded stimuli involuntarily capture attention. The learning mechanisms underlying this value-driven attentional capture remain less understood. We tested whether theories of prediction-based associative reward learning explain the conditions under which reward feedback leads to value-based modulations of attentional priority. Across four experiments, we manipulated whether stimulus features served as unique predictors of reward outcomes. Participants received monetary rewards for correctly identifying a color-defined target in an initial search task (training phase) and then immediately completed a second, unrewarded visual search task in which color was irrelevant (test phase). In Experiments 1–3, monetary reward followed correct target selection during training, but critically, no target-defining features carried uniquely predictive information about reward outcomes. Under these conditions, we found no evidence of attentional capture by the previous target colors in the subsequent test phase. Conversely, when target colors in the training phase of Experiment 4 carried uniquely predictive information about reward magnitude, we observed significant attentional capture by the previously rewarded color. Our findings show that value-based attentional priority only develops for stimulus features that carry uniquely predictive information about reward, ruling out a purely motivational account and suggesting that mechanisms of reward prediction play an important role in shaping attentional priorities.

Executive control involves the ability to flexibly inhibit or change an action when it is contextually inappropriate. Using the complimentary techniques of human fMRI and monkey electrophysiology in a context-dependent stop signal task, we found a functional double dissociation between the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) and the bi-lateral frontal eye field (FEF). Different regions of rVLPFC were associated with context-based signal meaning versus intention to inhibit a response, while FEF activity corresponded to success or failure of the response inhibition regardless of the stimulus response mapping or the context. These results were validated by electrophysiological recordings in rVLPFC and FEF from one monkey. Inhibition of a planned behavior is therefore likely not governed by a single brain system as had been previously proposed, but instead depends on two distinct neural processes involving different sub-regions of the rVLPFC and their interactions with other motor-related brain regions.

Individuals regularly experience fluctuations in the ability to perform cognitive operations. Although previous research has focused on predicting cognitive flexibility from persistent individual traits as well as from spontaneous fluctuations in neural activity, the role of learning in shaping preparatory attentional control remains poorly understood. Across three experiments, we manipulated the statistical regularities of an attentional orienting paradigm to examine whether individuals modulated attentional flexibility, the readiness to perform a spatial shift of attention, across learned contexts. We found evidence of learning-based modulations in preparatory attentional control settings when the probability of shifting the focus of attention differed based on temporally or color-defined contexts. Furthermore, in the case of color-defined contexts, these modulations in preparatory control persisted even after a change in the underlying statistical properties. Our results indicate that dynamic adjustments in preparatory attentional control are sensitive to the underlying statistical regularities of an environment. This finding has implications for understanding disordered patterns of attentional control and how these patterns might be modified with training.

Spontaneous fluctuations in cognitive flexibility are characterized by moment-to-moment changes in the efficacy of control over attentional shifts. We used fMRI to investigate the neural correlates in humans of spontaneous fluctuations in readiness to covertly shift attention between two peripheral rapid serial visual presentation streams. Target detection response time (RT) after a shift or hold of covert spatial attention served as a behavioral index of fluctuations in attentional flexibility. In particular, the cost associated with shifting attention compared with holding attention varied as a function of pretrial brain activity in key regions of the default mode network (DMN), but not the dorsal attention network. High pretrial activity within the DMN was associated with a greater increase in shift trial RT relative to hold trial RT, revealing that these areas are associated with a state of attentional stability. Conversely, high pretrial activity within bilateral anterior insula and the presupplementary motor area/supplementary motor area was associated with a greater decrease in shift trial RT relative to hold trial RT, reflecting increased flexibility. Our results importantly clarify the roles of the precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex, and lateral parietal cortex, indicating that reduced activity may not simply indicate greater task engagement, but also, specifically, a readiness to update the focus of attention. Investigation of the neural correlates of spontaneous changes in attentional flexibility may contribute to our understanding of disorders of cognitive control as well as healthy variability in the control of spatial attention.

Individuals are able to adjust their readiness to shift spatial attention, referred to as “attentional flexibility,” according to the changing demands of the environment, but the neural mechanisms underlying learned adjustments in flexibility are unknown. In the current study, we used fMRI to identify the brain structures responsible for learning shift likelihood. Participants were cued to covertly hold or shift attention among continuous streams of alphanumeric characters and to indicate the parity of target stimuli. Unbeknown to the participants, the stream locations were predictive of the likelihood of having to shift (or hold) attention. Participants adapted their attentional flexibility according to contextual demands, such that the RT cost associated with shifting attention was smallest when shift cues were most likely. Learning model-derived shift prediction error scaled positively with activity within dorsal and ventral frontoparietal regions, documenting that these regions track and update shift likelihood. A complementary inverted encoding model analysis revealed that the pretrial difference in attentional selection strength between to-be-attended and to-be-ignored locations did not change with increasing shift likelihood. The behavioral improvement associated with learned flexibility may primarily arise from a speeding of the shift process rather than from preparatory broadening of attentional selection.

The current study examined whether children with ADHD were more distracted by a stimulus previously associated with reward, but currently goal-irrelevant, than their typically-developing peers. In addition, we also probed the associated cognitive and motivational mechanisms by examining correlations with other behavioral tasks. Participants included 8-12 year-old children with ADHD (n = 30) and typically developing controls (n = 26). Children were instructed to visually search for color-defined targets and received monetary rewards for accurate responses. In a subsequent search task in which color was explicitly irrelevant, we manipulated whether a distractor item appeared in a previously reward-associated color. We examined whether children responded more slowly on trials with the previously-rewarded distractor present compared to trials without this distractor, a phenomenon referred to as value-driven attentional capture (VDAC), and whether children with and without ADHD differed in the extent to which they displayed VDAC. Correlations among working memory performance, immediate reward preference (delay discounting) and attentional capture were also examined. Children with ADHD were significantly less affected by the presence of the previously rewarded distractor than were control participants. Within the ADHD group, greater value-driven attentional capture was associated with poorer working memory. Although both ADHD and control participants were initially distracted by previously reward-associated stimuli, the magnitude of distraction was larger and persisted longer among control participants.

Cognitive flexibility reflects both a trait that reliably differs between individuals and a state that can fluctuate moment-to-moment. Whether individuals can undergo persistent changes in cognitive flexibility as a result of reward learning is less understood. Here, we investigated whether reinforcing a periodic shift in an object selection strategy can make an individual more prone to switch strategies in a subsequent unrelated task. Participants completed two different choice tasks in which they selected one of four objects in an attempt to obtain a hidden reward on each trial. During a training phase, objects were defined by color. Participants received either consistent reward contingencies in which one color was more often rewarded, or contingencies in which the color that was more often rewarded changed periodically and without warning. Following the training phase, all participants completed a test phase in which reward contingencies were defined by spatial location and the location that was more often rewarded remained constant across the entire task. Those participants who received inconsistent contingencies during training continued to make more variable selections during the test phase in comparison to those who received the consistent training. Furthermore, a difference in the likelihood to switch selections on a trial-by-trial basis emerged between training groups: participants who received consistent contingencies during training were less likely to switch object selections following an unrewarded trial and more likely to repeat a selection following reward. Our findings provide evidence that the extent to which priority shifting is reinforced modulates the stability of cognitive control settings in a persistent manner, such that individuals become generally more or less prone to shifting priorities in the future.

According to Fitts' Law, the time (MT) to move to a target is a linear function of the logarithm of the ratio between the target's distance and width. Although Fitts' Law accurately predicts MTs for direct movements, it does not accurately predict MTs for indirect movements, as when an obstacle intrudes on the direct movement path. To address this limitation, Jax et al. (2007) added an obstacle-intrusion term to Fitts' Law. They accurately predicted MTs around obstacles in two-dimensional (2-D) workspaces, but their model had one more parameter than Fitts' Law did and was merely descriptive. In this study, we addressed these concerns by turning to the mechanistic, posture-based (PB) movement planning model. The PB-based model accounted for almost as much MT variance in a 3-D movement task as the model of Jax et al., with only two parameters, the same number of parameters as in Fitts' Law.