Distinguishing the neural mechanism of attentional control and working memory in feature‐based attentive tracking

Abstract

Surface features are an important component in attentive tracking. However, the neural mechanisms underlying how features affect attentive tracking remain unknown. The present fMRI study addressed this issue by manipulating the intragroup feature complexity and intergroup feature similarity. In particular, this study distinguished the different neural mechanisms of intragroup feature complexity and intergroup feature similarity by investigating the roles of attentional control and working memory in dynamic feature‐based attentive tracking. Behavioral and neuroimaging evidence showed that when targets are distinct from distractors, the intragroup feature complexity of the targets, rather than that of the distractors, mainly increases the visual working memory load and significantly activates the frontoparietal cortical circuit. Thus, the involvement of working memory in feature‐based attentive tracking is modulated by goal‐directed attention control. In addition, when targets are similar to distractors, the intergroup feature similarity (i.e., target‐distractor similarity) mainly affects the allocation of attention. Specifically, target‐distractor similarity affects the goal‐directed attention toward the targets in a stimulus‐driven way and induces an interaction between the ventral and dorsal attention networks.

How do humans group non‐rigid objects in multiple object tracking?: Evidence from grouping by self‐rotation

“…On the one hand, the random rotation phases between objects made the tracking task more complex and more diverse in the homogeneous condition. According to the previous behavioural and neuroimaging findings (Erlikhman et al, 2013; Hu et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2019), under the complex conditions, people mainly tended to process the features of targets rather than those of distractors. This meant that people could inhibit the interference from the distractors sharing the features with the targets, so as to invalidate the bottom‐up binding perception resulting from similar target–distractor pairs during tracking and avoid the interference with the grouping effect within the targets.…”

Disentangling working memory from multiple‐object tracking: Evidence from dual‐task interferences

“…Nummenmaa and his colleagues (2017) revealed that a cortex circuit is engaged in the MOT task, involving medial and lateral prefrontal and inferior and superior parietal cortices, which extensively overlap with those activated brain areas engaged by nonspatial VWM (Nummenmaa et al, 2017). Recently, Hu, Wang, Talhelm and Zhang (2021) offered similar evidence showing that there are two distinct neural processes in featurebased attentive tracking, i.e., attentive tracking and visual working memory (Hu, Wang, Talhelm & Zhang, 2021).…”