Neural Mechanisms of Object-Based Attention

Baldauf, Daniel; Desimone, Robert

doi:10.1126/science.1247003

Cited by 472 publications

(445 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…In all of these studies, the representation of a task rule involved a unique stimulus-response mapping. Because PPC has been regarded as an interface between sensory and motor processing that facilitates sensorimotor transformations (Andersen and Cui, 2009), the representation of stimulusresponse mapping rules in PPC is expected. In the present study, the two tasks used involved identical motor responses, yet we still found robust representation of the task information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Goal-Directed Visual Processing Differentially Impacts Human Ventral and Dorsal Visual Representations

Vaziri-Pashkam

2017

J. Neurosci.

100

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Recent studies have challenged the ventral/"what" and dorsal/"where" two-visual-processing-pathway view by showing the existence of "what" and "where" information in both pathways. Is the two-pathway distinction still valid? Here, we examined how goal-directed visual information processing may differentially impact visual representations in these two pathways. Using fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis, in three experiments on human participants (57% females), by manipulating whether color or shape was task-relevant and how they were conjoined, we examined shape-based object category decoding in occipitotemporal and parietal regions. We found that object category representations in all the regions examined were influenced by whether or not object shape was task-relevant. This task effect, however, tended to decrease as task-relevant and irrelevant features were more integrated, reflecting the well-known object-based feature encoding. Interestingly, task relevance played a relatively minor role in driving the representational structures of early visual and ventral object regions. They were driven predominantly by variations in object shapes. In contrast, the effect of task was much greater in dorsal than ventral regions, with object category and task relevance both contributing significantly to the representational structures of the dorsal regions. These results showed that, whereas visual representations in the ventral pathway are more invariant and reflect "what an object is," those in the dorsal pathway are more adaptive and reflect "what we do with it." Thus, despite the existence of "what" and "where" information in both visual processing pathways, the two pathways may still differ fundamentally in their roles in visual information representation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Goal-Directed Visual Processing Differentially Impacts Human Ventral and Dorsal Visual Representations

Vaziri-Pashkam

2017

J. Neurosci.

100

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“…Consider now an integrator that represents the item being presented; as information accumulates, the firing rate increases gradually---the moment of recognition occurs when a criterion rate is achieved (for a review, see (Shadlen and Kiani, 2013); see also section on consciousness). There has been progress in understanding the brain regions that control attention and the role of brain oscillations in the process (Baldauf and Desimone, 2014; Brooks et al, 2014; Buschman and Miller, 2009), but no clear mechanistic view of how the attentional window is selected has emerged.…”

Section: Visual Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenge of Understanding the Brain: Where We Stand in 2015

Lisman

2015

Neuron

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Starting with the work of Cajal more than 100 years ago, neuroscience has sought to understand how the cells of the brain give rise to cognitive functions. How far has neuroscience progressed in this endeavor? This Perspective assesses progress in elucidating five basic brain processes: visual recognition, long-term memory, short-term memory, action selection, and motor control. Each of these processes entails several levels of analysis: the behavioral properties, the underlying computational algorithm, and the cellular/network mechanisms that implement that algorithm. At this juncture, while many questions remain unanswered, achievements in several areas of research have made it possible to relate specific properties of brain networks to cognitive functions. What has been learned reveals, at least in rough outline, how cognitive processes can be an emergent property of neurons and their connections.

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“…PFC has traditionally been associated with executive control (for review, see (Miller and Cohen, 2001)), and working memory for locations and objects (Everling et al, 2006; Funahashi et al, 1989; Fuster and Alexander, 1971; Mendoza-Halliday et al, 2014; Miller et al, 1996; Rainer et al, 1998; Rao et al, 1997). Human imaging studies show that parts of PFC are active during both spatial and feature attention (Bressler et al, 2008; Egner et al, 2008; Gazzaley and Nobre, 2012; Giesbrecht et al, 2003), and a recent human MEG and fMRI study has reported that a particular region in PFC, the inferior frontal junction (IFJ), played an important role in the top-down control of feature-based attention (Baldauf and Desimone, 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Source for Feature-Based Attention in the Prefrontal Cortex

Bichot

Heard

DeGennaro

et al. 2015

Neuron

Self Cite

250

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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.

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Neural Mechanisms of Object-Based Attention

Cited by 472 publications

References 74 publications

Goal-Directed Visual Processing Differentially Impacts Human Ventral and Dorsal Visual Representations

Goal-Directed Visual Processing Differentially Impacts Human Ventral and Dorsal Visual Representations

The Challenge of Understanding the Brain: Where We Stand in 2015

A Source for Feature-Based Attention in the Prefrontal Cortex

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