Modeling the time course of attention signals in human primary visual cortex

Michael A. Silver

doi:10.1117/12.674149

9 February 2006 Modeling the time course of attention signals in human primary visual cortex

Michael A. Silver

Proceedings Volume 6057, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XI; 605714 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.674149
Event: Electronic Imaging 2006, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Previous neuroimaging studies have documented the existence of attention signals in human visual cortex, but little is known about the time course of these signals. A recent study reported persistent activity in early visual cortex whose duration was correlated with the duration of sustained attention¹. The present study extends these findings by modeling the time course of sustained attention signals with a linear function with duration equal to the period of sustained attention but with variable amplitude and slope. Subjects performed a visual detection task in which a variable-duration delay period occurred before every target presentation. This design required the subjects to allocate visuospatial attention throughout the delay period. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record activity in primary visual cortex (cortical area V1) during performance of the task. There were significant individual differences in the time course of attention signals, with some subjects displaying time courses consistent with constant amplitude attention signals, while others showed decreasing amplitude of attention-related activity during the delay period. These individual differences in time course of attention signals were correlated with behavioral response bias, suggesting that they may reflect differences in the types of attention used by the subjects to perform the detection task. In particular, those subjects who had constant amplitude sustained attention signals may have been employing relatively more endogenous, or top-down attention, while the subjects who exhibited attention signals that decreased over time may have been using relatively more exogenous, or bottom-up attention.

Citation Download Citation

Michael A. Silver "Modeling the time course of attention signals in human primary visual cortex", Proc. SPIE 6057, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XI, 605714 (9 February 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.674149

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KEYWORDS

Visualization

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Visual cortex

Signal detection

Target detection

Visual process modeling

Data modeling

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