Can salient stimuli-such as color singletons and abrupt onsets-involuntarily capture spatial attention? We previously reported evidence that abrupt onsets can capture attention, but the effects of this capture can become latent under easy visual search. The present experiments examined whether a similar pattern of latent capture occurs for task-irrelevant color singletons. Participants searched for a perfect circle among oval distractors. We manipulated search difficulty by varying the width of the oval distractors, making them more or less target-like (i.e., more or less circular). With search displays of homogeneous distractors, cue validity effects increased linearly with search difficulty, indicating capture by color singletons (Experiments 1 and 2). With heterogeneous distractors, however, discouraging the use of singleton-detection mode to find the target circle, cue validity effects from color singletons were negligible at all difficulty levels (Experiment 3). Using these exact same heterogeneous search displays, meanwhile, abrupt onsets produced very large cue validity effects (Experiment 4). We conclude that whereas abrupt onsets can capture attention based purely on salience, static color singletons capture attention only when made task-relevant by promoting singletondetection mode (i.e., contingent capture). The data further support an attentional dwelling account of capture costs and reinforce the recommendation that, to ensure sensitivity to detect the presence (or absence) of attention capture, capture experiments should employ a difficult visual search.

Background: Poor sleep quality is a common complaint, affecting over one third of people in the United States. While sleep quality is thought to be related to slow-wave sleep (SWS), there has been little investigation to address whether modulating slow-wave oscillations (SWOs) that characterize SWS could impact sleep quality. Here we examined whether closed-loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (CL-tACS) applied during sleep impacts sleep quality and efficiency. Methods: CL-tACS was used in 21 participants delivered at the same frequency and in phase with endogenous SWOs during sleep. Sleep quality was assessed in the morning following either verum or sham control stimulation during sleep, with order counterbalanced within participants. Results: Higher sleep quality and efficiency were found after verum stimulation nights compared to control. The largest effects on sleep quality were found immediately following an adaptation night in the laboratory for which sleep quality was reduced. Conclusions: Applying CL-tACS at the same frequency and phase as endogenous SWOs may offer a novel method to improve subjective sleep quality after a night with poor quality sleep. CL-tACS might be helpful for increasing sleep quality and efficiency in otherwise healthy people, and in patients with clinical disorders that involve sleep deficits.

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