A neutral cue facilitates detection of a visual target by modulating attention

Hamamé, Carlos M.; Délano, Paul H.; Robles, Luis

doi:10.4067/s0716-97602008000400012

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The stimulus events in our experiments were intentionally not informative about target location to prevent the recruitment of endogenous effects, so mice had no incentive to associate the stimulus event with the target location. Consequently, the lack of spatial specificity in our stimulus-driven changes of attention is consistent with control settings that processed the stimulus event as an alerting signal ( Posner, 1980 ), similar to that seen in primates and rodents ( Fecteau & Munoz, 2007 ; Hamame, Delano, & Robles, 2008 ; Witte, Villareal, & Marrocco, 1996 ). A related possibility is that the mice might have used the occurrence of the stimulus event to reduce the uncertainty about the timing of the orientation change, even though the stimulus event was uninformative about where the orientation change would occur.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Stimulus-driven visual attention in mice

et al. 2022

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In primates, stimulus-driven changes in visual attention can facilitate or hinder perceptual performance, depending on the location and timing of the stimulus event. Mice have emerged as a powerful model for studying visual circuits and behavior; however, it is unclear whether mice show similar interactions between stimulus events and visual attention during perceptual decisions. To investigate this, we trained head-fixed mice to detect a near-threshold change in visual orientation and tested how performance was altered by task-irrelevant stimuli that occurred at different times and locations with respect to the orientation change. We found that task-irrelevant stimuli strongly affected mouse performance. Specifically, stimulus-driven attention in mice followed a similar time course as that in other species: The decreases in reaction times fully emerged between 250 and 400 ms after the stimulus event, and detection accuracy was not affected. However, the effects of stimulus-driven attention on behavior in mice were insensitive to stimulus-event location, an aspect different from what is known in primates. In contrast, reaction times in mice were reduced at longer delays after the task-irrelevant stimulus event regardless of its spatial congruence to the target. These results highlight the strengths and limitations of using mice as a model for studying higher-order visual functions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Stimulus-driven visual attention in mice

et al. 2022

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“…Two experimenters blinded to the MOC reflex strength of each animal performed the behavioural procedures. All animals were trained during ~ 3 to 4 months, five days a week, in a two-choice visual discrimination task previously used by us in rats 31,45 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ mice 18,46 . The behavioural task was performed in an operant mesh cage identical to the one used in Delano et al 9 , located inside a double-walled sound-attenuating room.…”

Section: Measurement Of Dpoaes Suppression By Contralateral Noise In mentioning

confidence: 99%

The olivocochlear reflex strength in awake chinchillas is relevant for behavioural performance during visual selective attention with auditory distractors

Bowen

Terreros

Moreno‐Gómez

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The auditory efferent system comprises descending projections from the cerebral cortex to subcortical nuclei, reaching the cochlear receptor through olivocochlear fibres. One of the functions attributed to this corticofugal system is to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli. Medial olivocochlear neurons can also be activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit. Whether the individual variability of this reflex is related to the cognitive capacity to suppress auditory stimuli is still controversial. Here we propose that the individual strength per animal of the olivocochlear reflex is correlated with the ability to suppress auditory distractors during visual attention in awake chinchillas. The olivocochlear reflex was elicited with a contralateral broad-band noise at ~ 60 dB and ipsilateral distortion product otoacoustic emissions were obtained at different frequencies (1–8 kHz). Fourteen chinchillas were evaluated in a behavioural protocol of visual attention with broad-band noise and chinchilla vocalizations as auditory distractors. Results show that the behavioural performance was affected by both distractors and that the magnitudes of the olivocochlear reflex evaluated at multiple frequencies were relevant for behavioural performance during visual discrimination with auditory distractors. These results stress the ecological relevance of the olivocochlear system for suppressing natural distractors.

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Selective Attention to Visual Stimuli Using Auditory Distractors Is Altered in Alpha-9 Nicotinic Receptor Subunit Knock-Out Mice

Terreros

Jorratt

Aedo

et al. 2016

Journal of Neuroscience

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During selective attention, subjects voluntarily focus their cognitive resources on a specific stimulus while ignoring others. Top-down filtering of peripheral sensory responses by higher structures of the brain has been proposed as one of the mechanisms responsible for selective attention. A prerequisite to accomplish top-down modulation of the activity of peripheral structures is the presence of corticofugal pathways. The mammalian auditory efferent system is a unique neural network that originates in the auditory cortex and projects to the cochlear receptor through the olivocochlear bundle, and it has been proposed to function as a top-down filter of peripheral auditory responses during attention to cross-modal stimuli. However, to date, there is no conclusive evidence of the involvement of olivocochlear neurons in selective attention paradigms. Here, we trained wild-type and ␣-9 nicotinic receptor subunit knock-out (KO) mice, which lack cholinergic transmission between medial olivocochlear neurons and outer hair cells, in a two-choice visual discrimination task and studied the behavioral consequences of adding different types of auditory distractors. In addition, we evaluated the effects of contralateral noise on auditory nerve responses as a measure of the individual strength of the olivocochlear reflex. We demonstrate that KO mice have a reduced olivocochlear reflex strength and perform poorly in a visual selective attention paradigm. These results confirm that an intact medial olivocochlear transmission aids in ignoring auditory distraction during selective attention to visual stimuli.

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A neutral cue facilitates detection of a visual target by modulating attention

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Stimulus-driven visual attention in mice

Stimulus-driven visual attention in mice

The olivocochlear reflex strength in awake chinchillas is relevant for behavioural performance during visual selective attention with auditory distractors

Selective Attention to Visual Stimuli Using Auditory Distractors Is Altered in Alpha-9 Nicotinic Receptor Subunit Knock-Out Mice

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