Attenuation of Neural Responses in Primary Visual Cortex during the Attentional Blink

Information-processing bottlenecks are characteristic of many cognitive and neural systems. One such bottleneck is revealed by tasks in which rapidly successive stimulus events must be reported. Here, observers missed the second of two visual targets if it occurred within 700 ms of the first [an &qu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of neuroscience 2008-09, Vol.28 (39), p.9890-9894
Main Authors: Williams, Mark A, Visser, Troy A. W, Cunnington, Ross, Mattingley, Jason B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Blinking - physiology
Brain Mapping
Brief Communications
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Orientation - physiology
Oxygen - blood
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photic Stimulation - methods
Task Performance and Analysis
Time Factors
Visual Cortex - blood supply
Visual Cortex - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Information-processing bottlenecks are characteristic of many cognitive and neural systems. One such bottleneck is revealed by tasks in which rapidly successive stimulus events must be reported. Here, observers missed the second of two visual targets if it occurred within 700 ms of the first [an "attentional blink" (AB)], even though this second target could be reported accurately when the first item was ignored. Isolating neural responses to such rapid events has proven difficult because current magnetic resonance imaging methods rely on relatively sluggish changes in the brain's physiological response to sensory inputs. Here, we overcame this limitation by presenting successive visual targets at different spatial locations, thereby exploiting the retinotopic organization of early cortical visual areas to distinguish neural activity associated with successive target events. We show that neural activity in primary visual cortex is significantly modulated during the AB, and that this activity mirrors behavioral measures of target identification accuracy. The findings suggest that the neural signature of perceptual suppression during processing of rapidly successive stimuli is evident at the earliest stages of cortical sensory processing.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3057-08.2008