Getting rid of visual distractors: the why, when, how, and where

Inhibition in selective attention

“…That distractor filtering capitalizes on experience with the distractor information agrees with characteristics of habituation, the progressive attenuation of the amplitude of responses to repeated sensory stimulation which is not caused by sensory adaptation or motor fatigue . Although, thus far, habituation has especially been shown to account for reduced distractor interference following repeated exposure to visual onset distractors, its defining characteristics resonate with the idea that only prediction errors capture attention . Just as in predictive coding models where the brain is continuously trying to predict new sensory input based on previous experiences, in habituation models, sensory input is also compared against stored representations based on expected frequency and the context .…”

“…The evidence reviewed here, however, demonstrates that the neural mechanisms underlying distractor inhibition differ, at least to a large extent, from the ones that guide attention in space or along other feature dimensions. While attention can flexibly bias visual regions in advance to boost processing of goal‐relevant information, distractor foreknowledge often hampers performance, unless a defining distractor property (e.g., its location or color) becomes predictable through statistical learning . Yet, how such learned inhibition is neurally implemented remains an important outstanding question for future research.…”

“…Recent behavioral work suggests that distraction by sudden onsets can be eliminated through mere passive viewing, indicative of latent learning mechanisms or habituation. How learning through passive viewing may be related to statistical learning/predictive processing is another important avenue for future research . Finally, information about upcoming distraction can also be nonspecific, but nevertheless used to prepare the system more globally, for example, through global suppression of sensory processing.…”

“…In this, we dissociate between proposed preparatory mechanisms that suppress distractor features in advance and suppressive mechanisms that come about in response to distracting sensory input . While the long‐standing view has been that inhibition of distracting or irrelevant sensory information is under direct, volitional control similar to attention to goal‐relevant aspect of the environment, it is becoming increasingly clear that suppression is not under direct top‐down control and can be implemented via a multitude of underlying mechanisms, each tuned to specific circumstances . Recent behavioral studies, for example, have shown that the ability to ignore distracting information often strongly depends on learning based on previous experiences with the distracting information .…”

“…Recent behavioral studies, for example, have shown that the ability to ignore distracting information often strongly depends on learning based on previous experiences with the distracting information . Yet, what factors determine the ability to inhibit distractor information and which specific set of neural mechanisms arise under different circumstances remain topics of active debate …”