Goal-directed and stimulus-driven selection of internal representations

Abstract

Adaptive behavior relies on the selection of relevant sensory information from both the external environment and internal memory representations. In understanding external selection, a classic distinction is made between voluntary (goal-directed) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) guidance of attention. We have developed a task—the anti-retrocue task—to separate and examine voluntary and involuntary guidance of attention to internal representations in visual working memory. We show that both voluntary and involuntary factors influence memory performance but do so in distinct ways. Moreover, by tracking gaze biases linked to attentional focusing in memory, we provide direct evidence for an involuntary “retro-capture” effect whereby external stimuli involuntarily trigger the selection of feature-matching internal representations. We show that stimulus-driven and goal-directed influences compete for selection in memory, and that the balance of this competition—as reflected in oculomotor signatures of internal attention—predicts the quality of ensuing memory-guided behavior. Thus, goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors together determine the fate not only of perception, but also of internal representations in working memory.

Motor learning by selection in visual working memory

“…Most critically, the gaze bias was absent during the last 500 ms before online saccade detection (i.e., the initial fixation interval) in the subsequent trial (n + 1), excluding the possibility that the observed trial-to-trial amplitude changes simply reflect a lingering attentional bias. The absence of a gaze bias during the end of the fixation interval cannot be explained by the presence of the fixation cross alone: previous work, in which participants memorized a task-relevant stimulus, found a gaze bias even in the presence of a fixation cross throughout the trial 25 , 26 . Moreover, the gaze bias did not reappear after the primary saccade in trial n + 1.…”

“…Second, amplitude changes could reflect a lingering attentional bias, in the sense that saccade targeting is not only determined by the signal from the peripheral saccade target but also by lingering activity from the previous trial. Such an attentional bias might arise from memorizing the task-relevant stimulus and its location for the subsequent response and should also be apparent in a consistent bias in gaze position over the course of one trial 25 , 26 .…”

“…If the observed trial-to-trial amplitude changes reflect adaptation of sensorimotor transformation, then we expect a gaze bias towards the location of the task-relevant stimulus in the same trial (trial n). This gaze bias should disappear after the information held in VWM becomes obsolete 25 , 26 . However, if amplitude changes reflect a lingering attentional bias, we expect the gaze bias from trial n to still be present in trial n + 1.…”

Analogous computations in working memory input, output and motor gating: Electrophysiological and computational modeling evidence

“…Note that to test the effect of gate switching on prioritization, we excluded trials from the temporal dynamic analysis where the same stimulus was repeated from the previous trial. This exclusion allowed us to control for impact of perceptual switches that could have elicited an involuntary stimulus-driven enhancement of memory representations that match the probed category stimulus (e.g., [28, 92]). Therefore, we restricted analysis to output repeat trials involving a perceptual change (e.g., from “X” to “O”), while output switch trials also included a category change (e.g., from “X” to “%”).…”

Pharmacological blockade of dopamine D1- or D2-receptor in the prefrontal cortex induces attentional impairment in the object-based attention test through different neuronal circuits in mice

“…Neurons expressing dopamine D1 and D2-receptor in the PFC is different but both neurons project striatum [ 13 , 14 ]. Corticostriatal circuit is important for the goal-directed action [ 15 ], which contribute attention [ 16 ]. In this study we showed that blockade of dopamine D2-receptor in the PFC induced c-Fos expression in the DMS and DLS.…”