Faculty Collaboration Database

A physiological correlate of the 'spotlight' of visual attention. Nat Neurosci 1999 Apr;2(4):370-4

Date

04/16/1999

Pubmed ID

10204545

DOI

10.1038/7280

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0033364004 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   609 Citations

Abstract

Here we identify a neural correlate of the ability to precisely direct visual attention to locations other than the center of gaze. Human subjects performed a task requiring shifts of visual attention (but not of gaze) from one location to the next within a dense array of targets and distracters while functional MRI was used to map corresponding displacements of neural activation within visual cortex. The cortical topography of the purely attention-driven activity precisely matched the topography of activity evoked by the cued targets when presented in isolation. Such retinotopic mapping of attention-related activation was found in primary visual cortex, as well as in dorsomedial and ventral occipital visual areas previously implicated in processing the attended target features. These results identify a physiological basis for the effects of spatially directed visual attention.

Author List

Brefczynski JA, DeYoe EA

Author

Edgar A. DeYoe PhD Adjunct Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Attention
Brain Mapping
Color Perception
Dominance, Cerebral
Female
Field Dependence-Independence
Form Perception
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Models, Neurological
Occipital Lobe
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Space Perception
Visual Cortex
Visual Fields
Visual Perception