Body position differentially influences responses to exogenous and endogenous cues

Abstract

The influence of vestibular inputs on exogenous (Exp. 1) and endogenous (Exp. 2) orienting of visual attention was examined. The vestibular system was manipulated through a change in static body position. Participants engaged in an exogenous or endogenous response task while in a seated position, while lying in a prone position, and while in a prone position with their head down and neck flexed (HDNF). An attenuation of inhibition and facilitation effects during the exogenous task was observed in the HDNF position. However, responses to the cues remained similar in the endogenous task, irrespective of body position. The results reveal a potential dissociation between reflexive and volitional orienting of visual attention that is dependent on vestibular inputs.

The effects of medium chain triglyceride (MCT) supplementation using a C8:C10 ratio of 30:70 on cognitive performance in healthy young adults

“…Likewise, there was no change within the endogenous cuing task, where responses are usually biased toward the same side of space as a disproportionately presented pre-cue. These cuing tasks have been known to be heavily influenced by related factors such as vestibular inputs [52], testosterone levels [53], and age [54]. Moreover, the visual selective attention processes that are associated with these cuing tasks can be attributed to a broad neural network that comprises the parietal, frontal and premotor cortices [55].…”

Zero gravity induced by parabolic flight enhances automatic capture and weakens voluntary maintenance of visuospatial attention

“…centred on the viewer’s head/trunk/eyes 20 . Other vestibular projections reach the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus (iSC), which carry out multisensory integration in egocentric space and are engaged by the dorsal attention system 6 , 21 .…”

“…Indeed, the efficiency of human performance in microgravity is crucial to the success of long-term space stations and interplanetary missions 8 , 11 , 28 , 29 . We may speculate that enhanced reflexive attentional capture by upcoming environmental visual stimuli and weakened ability to voluntarily maintaining attention at specific regions of the egocentric space might contribute to some altered perceptions experienced by the astronauts during spaceflights 6 , 27 , 28 . For example, in microgravity astronauts misperceive objects size (i.e.…”

Saccade-like behavior in the fast-phases of optokinetic nystagmus: An illustration of the emergence of volitional actions from automatic reflexes.

“…Most areas of psychology have been built upon similar fundamental distinctions between actions that appear automatic, inflexible and can be handled by relatively unintelligent neural mechanisms and those that appear consciously willed, which involve intelligent selection between competing decisional alternatives, and require highly sophisticated neural processes (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977; Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977, 1984). This dichotomy between “automatic” and “voluntary” processes remains embedded in many contemporary articles across a variety of disciplines—for example, in spatial attention (Barbot, Landy, & Carrasco, 2012; Chica, Bartolomeo, & Lupiáñez, 2013; Ibos, Duhamel, & Ben Hamed, 2013; Macaluso & Doricchi, 2013; McAuliffe, Johnson, Weaver, Deller-Quinn, & Hansen, 2013; Mysore & Knudsen, 2013; D. T. Smith, Schenk, & Rorden, 2012), temporal attention (Lawrence & Klein, 2013), cognition (Lifshitz, Bonn, Fischer, Kashem, & Raz, 2013), motor cueing (Martín-Arévalo, Kingstone, & Lupiáñez, 2013), reading (Feng, 2012), perception (Pfister, Heinemann, Kiesel, Thomaschke, & Janczyk, 2012; Spence & Deroy, 2013), social cognition/perception (Laidlaw, Risko, & Kingstone, 2012), or emotion regulation (R.…”

“…Most areas of psychology have been built upon similar fundamental distinctions between actions that appear automatic, inflexible and can be handled by relatively unintelligent neural mechanisms and those that appear consciously willed, which involve intelligent selection between competing decisional alternatives, and require highly sophisticated neural processes . This dichotomy between "automatic" and "voluntary" processes remains embedded in many contemporary articles across a variety of disciplines-for example, in spatial attention (Barbot, Landy, & Carrasco, 2012;Chica, Bartolomeo, & Lupiáñez, 2013;Ibos, Duhamel, & Ben Hamed, 2013;Macaluso & Doricchi, 2013;McAuliffe, Johnson, Weaver, Deller-Quinn, & Hansen, 2013;Mysore & Knudsen, 2013; D. T. Smith, Schenk, & Rorden, 2012), temporal attention (Lawrence & Klein, 2013), cognition (Lifshitz, Bonn, Fischer, Kashem, & Raz, 2013), motor cueing (Martín-Arévalo, Kingstone, & Lupiáñez, 2013), reading (Feng, 2012), perception (Pfister, Heinemann, Kiesel, Thomaschke, & Janczyk, 2012;Spence & Deroy, 2013), social cognition/perception (Laidlaw, Risko, & Kingstone, 2012), or emotion regulation (R. Viviani, 2013). Similarly, "voluntary" and "automatic" actions are clearly distinguished in clinical literature, for conditions ranging from deafness (Bottari, Valsecchi, & Pavani, 2012), to Parkinson's disease (D'Ostilio, Cremers, Delvaux, Sadzot, & Garraux, 2013;van Stockum, MacAskill, & Anderson, 2012;van Stockum, Ma-cAskill, Myall, & Anderson, 2013;Vervoort et al, 2013), Huntington's disease (Patel, Jankovic, Hood, Jeter, & Sereno, 2012), autism (Vernazza-Martin, Longuet, Chamot, & Orève, 2013), and mild traumatic brain injury (Zhang, Red, Lin, Patel, & Sereno, 2013).…”