A Source for Feature-Based Attention in the Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract

SUMMARY In cluttered scenes, we can use feature-based attention to quickly locate a target object. To understand how feature attention is used to find and select objects for action, we focused on the ventral pre-arcuate (VPA) region of prefrontal cortex. In a visual search task, VPA cells responded selectively to search cues, maintained their feature selectivity throughout the delay and subsequent saccades, and discriminated the search target in their receptive fields with a timecourse earlier than in FEF or IT cortex. Inactivation of VPA impaired the animals’ ability to find targets, and simultaneous recordings in FEF revealed that the effects of feature attention were eliminated while leaving the effects of spatial attention in FEF intact. Altogether, the results suggest that VPA neurons compute the locations of objects with the features sought and send this information to FEF to guide eye movements to those relevant stimuli.

Interaction between Spatial and Feature Attention in Posterior Parietal Cortex

“…Although the respective timing of attentional modulations are consistent with LIP driving attentional modulations in MT, these correlations do not provide direct evidence for a causal relationship. An alternative, and perhaps likely possibility is that attentional modulations in visual and parietal cortices are driven by top-down modulation from FEF (Astrand et al, 2015; Gregoriou et al, 2009; Ibos et al, 2013; Moore and Armstrong, 2003; Wardak et al, 2006) and PFC (Bichot et al, 2015; Hussar and Pasternak, 2013; Lennert and Martinez-Trujillo, 2011, 2013; Tremblay et al, 2015). For example, both electrical and pharmacological manipulation of FEF have been shown to produce attention-like modulation of activity in V4 (Armstrong and Moore, 2007; Noudoost and Moore, 2011; Schafer and Moore, 2011).…”

“…SBA or FBA have both been shown to enhance encoding of task relevant locations or features throughout the visual cortical hierarchy (Cohen and Maunsell, 2011; Connor et al, 1997; Ipata et al, 2012; Martinez-Trujillo and Treue, 2004; Maunsell and Treue, 2006) as well as higher order areas such as the Lateral Intraparietal (LIP) area (Bisley and Goldberg, 2010; Herrington and Assad, 2009; Ibos and Freedman, 2014), frontal-eye field (FEF) (Armstrong et al, 2009; Ibos et al, 2013; Zhou and Desimone, 2011) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Bichot et al, 2015; Hussar and Pasternak, 2013; Lennert and Martinez-Trujillo, 2011, 2013; Tremblay et al, 2015). Moreover, the impact of SBA and FBA on the response of visual cortical neurons suggests that both types of attention modulate neuronal processing in similar ways (Cohen and Maunsell, 2009, 2011; Hayden and Gallant, 2009; Leonard et al, 2015).…”

Heterogeneity Within the Frontoparietal Control Network and its Relationship to the Default and Dorsal Attention Networks

“…Prior work suggests that FPCN B contributes to cognitive control by flexibly encoding task-relevant information including task rules (e.g., stimulusresponse mappings) and their relationship to expected reward outcomes [2][3][4]6,59,60 . Notably, FPCN B regions including the inferior frontal junction play a causal top-down role in modulating the DAN and perceptual attention 61,62 . One possibility is that FPCN B represents information about task context in working memory and that the DAN translates this information into commands to guide the deployment of spatial attention to specific objects and locations 61,62 .…”

“…Notably, FPCN B regions including the inferior frontal junction play a causal top-down role in modulating the DAN and perceptual attention 61,62 . One possibility is that FPCN B represents information about task context in working memory and that the DAN translates this information into commands to guide the deployment of spatial attention to specific objects and locations 61,62 . By exerting topdown control over the DAN, FPCN B may ensure that attention remains focused on task-relevant perceptual information, rather than salient, yet irrelevant stimuli, or task-irrelevant thoughts.…”

Role of expected reward in frontal eye field during natural scene search

“…However, much is still unknown about reward processing in the frontal eye field (FEF), a prefrontal cortical area involved in the control of saccades (Bruce and Goldberg 1985;Schiller et al 1979) and spatial attention (Bichot et al 2015;Moore and Fallah 2003;Schall 2004). In the past, when researchers have discovered expected reward modulation in FEF (Ding and Hikosaka 2006;Roesch and Olson 2003), the underlying cause has been unclear.…”