Visual Attention in The Fovea and The Periphery during Visual Search

Abstract

SummaryVisual search depends on both the foveal and peripheral visual system, yet the foveal attention mechanisms is still lack of insights. We simultaneously recorded the foveal and peripheral activities in V4, IT and LPFC, while monkeys performed a category-based visual search task. Feature attention enhanced responses of Face-selective, House-selective, and Non-selective foveal cells in visual cortex. While foveal attention effects appeared no matter the peripheral attention effects, paying attention to the foveal stimulus dissipated the peripheral feature attentional effects, and delayed the peripheral spatial attentional effects. When target features appeared both in the foveal and the peripheral, feature attention effects seemed to occur predominately in the foveal, which might not distribute across the visual field according to common view of distributed feature attention effects. As a result, the parallel attentive process seemed to occur during distractor fixations, while the serial process predominated during target fixations in visual search.

Distinct visual processing networks for foveal and peripheral visual fields

“…5B ; P > 0.05). This result suggested that the processing in the fovea influenced the processing in the periphery, consistent with our prior report [16].…”

“…In the present study, we further revealed systematic differences in response profile and functional connectivity between foveal units and peripheral units. Moreover, our prior study revealed a bidirectionally interactive loop between parallel feature attention and serial saccade selection [16]. Our present study further corroborated these findings by showing the interaction and coordination between foveal and peripheral processing for spatial attention and saccade selection.…”

“…Our previous study revealed a novel distribution of feature attention effects across the entire visual field [16]. In the present study, we further revealed systematic differences in response profile and functional connectivity between foveal units and peripheral units.…”

“…These regions coordinate attentional resources and establish intricate networks that dynamically adjust sensory processing in response to the goals and intentions of the animal [15]. However, previous studies have predominantly focused on the peripheral receptive fields (RFs), with very few investigating foveal processing of attention in these brain areas [16, 17]. It remains largely unknown whether foveal and peripheral units have different response profiles and are differentially engaged in the attention network.…”

Deep Auto-encoder with Neural Response

“…Although we only tested DAE-NR with mice neural data, the pipeline of DAE-NR can be easily extent to the neurons of primates (e.g. monkey [43] or human). Beyond DAE-NRs, there are many future directions that combine artificial intelligence and brain intelligence that are worthy of investigation.…”