Attention to visual motion suppresses neuronal and behavioral sensitivity in nearby feature space

Yoo, Sang-Ah; Martinez‐Trujillo, Julio; Treue, Stefan; Tsotsos, John K.; Fallah, Mazyar

doi:10.1186/s12915-022-01428-7

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…For both, close distractors shifted saccade plans, but the effects of the distractor decreased through intermediate distances and then re-activated at farther distances. These findings provide evidence of a spatial suppressive surround in oculomotor planning as was predicted and found in visual processing by the Selective Tuning model of attention (Cutzu and Tsotsos, 2003; Hopf et al, 2006; Kehoe et al, 2018b; Yoo et al, 2022). When the distractor was close to the target (AD = 1, 2) it was in the attentional window of the target and less suppression was induced.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted November 4, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.03.514759 doi: bioRxiv preprint model of attention (Cutzu and Tsotsos, 2003;Hopf et al, 2006;Kehoe et al, 2018b;Yoo et al, 2022). When the distractor was close to the target (AD = 1, 2) it was in the attentional window of the target and less suppression was induced.…”

Section: Effects Of Angular Distance On Saccade Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Target-distractor competition modulates saccade trajectories in space and object-space

Giuricich

Green

Jordan

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Saccade planning and execution can be affected by a multitude of factors present in a target selection task. Recent studies have shown that the similarity between a target and nearby distractors affects the curvature of saccade trajectories, due to target-distractor competition. To further understand the nature of this competition, we varied the distance between and the similarity of complex target and distractor objects in a delayed match-to-sample task to examine their effects on saccade trajectories and better understand the underlying neural circuitry. For trials with short saccadic reaction times (SRTs) when target-distractor competition is still active, we found a robust effect of distance consistent with saccade vector averaging, whereas the effect of similarity suggested the existence of an object-based suppressive surround. At longer SRTs there was sufficient time for competition between the objects to complete and the distractor to be inhibited, which resulted in saccade trajectory deviations exhibiting the effects of a spatial suppressive surround. In terms of similarity, as the target-distractor similarity decreased, the initial saccade angle shifted towards the target, reflecting stronger distractor inhibition. There were no interactions between distance and similarity at any point in the time-course of target-distractor competition. Taken together, saccade trajectories reflect target-distractor competition that is affected independently by both spatial and object-space suppressive surrounds. The differences in saccade trajectories at short and long SRTs distinguish between active and completed decision-making processes. Thus, saccade responses are more beneficial than manual responses in studies of decision-making models.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Effects Of Angular Distance On Saccade Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Target-distractor competition modulates saccade trajectories in space and object-space

Giuricich

Green

Jordan

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Specifically, our observed task-dependent effects in early retinotopic areas are consistent with the literature on feature-based attention, which has shown that directing attention to simple visual features can modulate representations in early visual cortex (X. Chen et al, 2012; Foster & Ling, 2022; Gundlach et al, 2023; Jehee et al, 2011; Liu et al, 2003, 2007; Martinez-Trujillo & Treue, 2004; Mirabella et al, 2007; Saenz & Boynton, 2003; Serences & Boynton, 2007; Treue & Maunsell, 1996, 1999; Yoo et al, 2022). By modulating neurons coding for perceptual features that differentiate between categories, feature-based attention could provide a mechanism for improving the separability of different stimulus categories (Navalpakkam & Itti, 2007; Scolari et al, 2012; Scolari & Serences, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Dynamic categorization rules alter representations in human visual cortex

Henderson,

Serences,

Rungratsameetaweemana

2023

Preprint

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Everyday visual search tasks require objects to be categorized according to behavioral goals. For example, when searching for an apple at the supermarket, one might first find the Granny Smith apples by separating all visible apples into the categories “green” and “non-green”. However, suddenly remembering that your family actually likes Fuji apples would necessitate reconfiguring the boundary to separate “red” from “red-yellow” objects. Despite this need for flexibility, prior research on categorization has largely focused on understanding neural changes related to overlearning a single category boundary that bifurcates an object space. At the same time, studies of feature-based attention have provided some insight into flexible selection of features, but have mainly focused on selection of a single, usually low-level, feature, which is rarely sufficient to capture the complexity of categorizing higher-dimensional object sets. Here we addressed these gaps by asking human participants to categorize novel shape stimuli according to different linear and non-linear boundaries, a task that requires dynamically reconfiguring selective attention to emphasize different sets of abstract features. Using fMRI and multivariate analyses of retinotopically-defined visual areas, we found that shape representations in visual cortex became more distinct across relevant category boundaries in a context-dependent manner, with the largest changes in discriminability observed for stimuli near the category boundary. Importantly, these attention-induced modulations were linked to categorization performance. Together, these findings demonstrate that adaptive attentional modulations can alter representations of abstract feature dimensions in visual cortex to optimize object separability based on currently relevant category boundaries.

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“…For example, computational models propose that feature-based attention (similar to spatial attention) operates via center-surround selection in feature space, allowing for isolation of the target from nearby distractor features 35,36 . These predictions have been supported by behavioral and electrophysiological findings that feature representations similar to the attended feature (i.e., nearby in feature space) are suppressed relative to more distant features 13,[37][38][39][40] . Other studies suggest that feature tuning can be sharpened around the focus of attention 41,42 , or that additional neural populations are recruited to allocate additional resources towards the selected feature (i.e., receptive field recruitment) [43][44][45][46] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Feature-based attention warps the perception of visual features

Chapman

Chunharas

Störmer

2023

Sci Rep

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Selective attention improves sensory processing of relevant information but can also impact the quality of perception. For example, attention increases visual discrimination performance and at the same time boosts apparent stimulus contrast of attended relative to unattended stimuli. Can attention also lead to perceptual distortions of visual representations? Optimal tuning accounts of attention suggest that processing is biased towards “off-tuned” features to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in favor of the target, especially when targets and distractors are confusable. Here, we tested whether such tuning gives rise to phenomenological changes of visual features. We instructed participants to select a color among other colors in a visual search display and subsequently asked them to judge the appearance of the target color in a 2-alternative forced choice task. Participants consistently judged the target color to appear more dissimilar from the distractor color in feature space. Critically, the magnitude of these perceptual biases varied systematically with the similarity between target and distractor colors during search, indicating that attentional tuning quickly adapts to current task demands. In control experiments we rule out possible non-attentional explanations such as color contrast or memory effects. Overall, our results demonstrate that selective attention warps the representational geometry of color space, resulting in profound perceptual changes across large swaths of feature space. Broadly, these results indicate that efficient attentional selection can come at a perceptual cost by distorting our sensory experience.

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Attention to visual motion suppresses neuronal and behavioral sensitivity in nearby feature space

Cited by 12 publications

References 72 publications

Target-distractor competition modulates saccade trajectories in space and object-space

Target-distractor competition modulates saccade trajectories in space and object-space

Dynamic categorization rules alter representations in human visual cortex

Feature-based attention warps the perception of visual features

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