Functional but not obligatory link between microsaccades and neural modulation by covert spatial attention

Liu, Baiwei; Nobre, Anna C.; Ede, Freek van

doi:10.1101/2021.11.10.468033

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…First, the main finding from our study is that the attention-related modulation of SC neurons does not require the occurrence of microsaccades. This aspect of our results is entirely consistent with recent work showing that attentional effects are present even in the absence of microsaccades ( Liu et al, 2021 ; Poletti et al, 2017 ). Second, we did find that the amplitude of attention-related modulation varied with microsaccade direction when they did occur.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation

Herman

Katz

et al. 2022

eLife

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Recent evidence suggests that microsaccades are causally linked to the attention-related modulation of neurons—specifically, that microsaccades toward the attended location are required for the subsequent changes in firing rate. These findings have raised questions about whether attention-related modulation is due to different states of attention as traditionally assumed or might instead be a secondary effect of microsaccades. Here, in two rhesus macaques, we tested the relationship between microsaccades and attention-related modulation in the superior colliculus (SC), a brain structure crucial for allocating attention. We found that attention-related modulation emerged even in the absence of microsaccades, was already present prior to microsaccades toward the cued stimulus, and persisted through the suppression of activity that accompanied all microsaccades. Nonetheless, consistent with previous findings, we also found significant attention-related modulation when microsaccades were directed toward, rather than away from, the cued location. Thus, despite the clear links between microsaccades and attention, microsaccades are not necessary for attention-related modulation, at least not in the SC. They do, however, provide an additional marker for the state of attention, especially at times when attention is shifting from one location to another.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation

Herman

Katz

et al. 2022

eLife

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“…This contrasts with previous studies where gaze bias following valid retro-cues mainly predicted reaction times (van Ede et al, 2020(van Ede et al, , 2019. Directional gaze bias during WM is thought to reflect oculomotor involvement in spatial attention "spilling over" into eye-movements, but their function and relationship to neural signatures of spatial attention remain poorly understood (Liu, Nobre, & van Ede, 2021). Future studies should further disentangle the relationship between these measures of spatial attention and the ways they support WM for non-spatial features.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Neural Reinstatement Tracks Spread of Attention between Object Features in Working Memory

Printzlau

Myers

Manohar

et al. 2022

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Attention can be allocated in working memory (WM) to select and privilege relevant content. It is unclear whether attention selects individual features or whole objects in WM. Here, we used behavioral measures, eye-tracking and EEG to test the hypothesis that attention spreads between an object's features in WM. Twenty-six participants completed a WM task that asked them to recall the angle of one of two oriented, colored bars after a delay while EEG and eye-tracking data were collected. During the delay, an orthogonal “incidental task” cued the color of one item for a match/mismatch judgment. On congruent trials (50%), the cued item was probed for subsequent orientation recall; on incongruent trials (50%), the other memory item was probed. As predicted, selecting the color of an object in WM brought other features of the cued object into an attended state as revealed by EEG decoding, oscillatory α-power, gaze bias, and improved orientation recall performance. Together, the results show that attentional selection spreads between an object's features in WM, consistent with object-based attentional selection. Analyses of neural processing at recall revealed that the selected object was automatically compared with the probe, whether it was the target for recall or not. This provides a potential mechanism for the observed benefits of nonpredictive cueing in WM, where a selected item is prioritized for subsequent decision-making.

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“…This contrasts with previous studies where gaze bias following valid retro-cues mainly predicted reaction times (Van Ede et al, 2020; van Ede et al, 2019). Directional gaze bias during WM is thought to reflect oculomotor involvement in spatial attention “spilling over” into eye-movements, but their function and relationship to neural signatures of spatial attention remain poorly understood (Liu, Nobre, & Ede, 2021). Future studies should further disentangle the relationship between these measures of spatial attention and the ways they support WM for non-spatial features.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural reinstatement tracks attentional selection of object features in working memory

Printzlau

Myers

Manohar

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Working memory (WM) is the ability to hold information in mind in the short-term and use it flexibly for behaviour. Not all items are represented equally in WM. Attention can be allocated to select and privilege relevant WM content. It is unclear whether attention selects individual features or whole objects in WM. Here, we used behavioural measures, eye-tracking and electroencephalography (EEG) to test the hypothesis that attentional selection spreads between an object’s features in WM. Twenty-six participants (male and female) completed a WM task that asked them to recall the angle of one of two oriented, coloured bars after a delay while EEG and eye-tracking data was collected. During the delay, an orthogonal ‘incidental task’ cued the colour of one item for a match/mismatch judgement. On congruent trials (50%), the cued item was probed during memory recall; on incongruent trials (50%), the other memory item was probed. As predicted, selecting the colour of an object in WM brought other features of the cued object into an attended state as revealed by EEG decoding, oscillatory α-power, gaze bias and improved subsequent orientation recall performance. Together, the results build a case for object-based attentional selection in WM. Analyses of neural processing at recall revealed that the selected object was automatically compared with the probe, whether it was the target for recall or not, providing a potential mechanism for non-predictive cueing benefits in WM.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTEveryday behaviour depends on working memory (WM)—the ability to hold information in mind for an upcoming task. Attention can be focused to prioritise the most relevant object in WM. Most objects consist of multiple features, such as shape and colour. It is unclear whether attention selects entire objects in WM or only enhances the currently relevant feature. Here, we show that when people focus on a single feature of an object in memory, such as its colour, other features of that object are shifted into the focus of attention and become prioritised for subsequent decision-making. The results show that well-known object-based attention mechanisms exist for internal attention and highlight objects as a key unit of selection in WM.

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Functional but not obligatory link between microsaccades and neural modulation by covert spatial attention

Cited by 8 publications

References 43 publications

Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation

Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation

Neural Reinstatement Tracks Spread of Attention between Object Features in Working Memory

Neural reinstatement tracks attentional selection of object features in working memory

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