Resetting capacity limitations revealed by long-lasting elimination of attentional blink through training

Abstract

As with other cognitive phenomena that are based upon the capacity limitations of visual processing, it is thought that attentional blink (AB) cannot be eliminated, even after extensive training. We report in this paper that just 1 h of specific attentional training can completely eliminate AB, and that this effect is robust enough to persist for a few months after training. Results of subsequent behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments indicate that this learning effect is associated with improvements in temporal resolution, which are mainly due to processing in the prefrontal areas. Contrary to prior wisdom, we conclude that capacity limitations can be overcome by short-term training.learning in temporal attention | color-salient training | plasticity V isual information processing progresses hierarchically. In its early stages, the bulk of "raw" signals are processed in parallel. However, as signals are processed in higher stages, they become more abstract and cognitively meaningful, whereas the capacity of information processing becomes more limited in many respects, including visual short-term memory (1) and temporal attention (2). One of the best known phenomena that reflects the limited capacity of visual processing is attentional blink (AB), in which the identification of a second visual target (T2) is impaired in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) when that target is presented within 500 ms of the appearance of the first target (T1) (3-5). It is thought that AB occurs because the processing of T1 requires the full capacity of this portion of the visual system and does not allow for the processing of T2.If capacity limits could be increased, processing efficiency may be greatly improved in some cognitive tasks. There have been a number of attempts to eliminate AB through repetitive practice (2, 6, 7). However, so far none of these attempts have been successful in eliminating AB. These failures have led to the belief that it is impossible to eliminate the capacity limit associated with AB. In the current study, however, we developed a simple, short-term training method with which the AB capacity limitation can be entirely overcome. We also found that this learning effect lasts for a few months after training. Further results from behavioral and fMRI studies suggest that this elimination of AB is associated with an improvement in temporal resolution correlated with processing in the prefrontal areas. Overall, these results suggest that capacity limitations can be overcome by simple, short-term training. ResultsTo eliminate AB, we drew attention to T2 during training with a salient color. That is, T2 had a different color from all of the other items of the RSVP task. T2 thus captured the subjects' attention, such that it was easily identified and no longer subject to AB. We addressed the question as to whether repeating this task would bring about an improvement in the capacity of temporal attention.Experiment 1: Color-Salient Training Effect. Experiment 1 explores whethe...

Sex hormones modulate neurophysiological correlates of visual temporal attention

“…However, if the follicular test session followed the menstrual test session the good performance from the menstrual test session apparently carried over to the follicular test session and women would be likely to continue to perform well in spite of the unfavorable effect of estradiol. This interpretation is well in line with the finding that, if the AB is experimentally eliminated by making T2 color--salient for a limited period of time, the AB will not reoccur when the color--saliency is removed (Choi et al, 2012). The mechanisms underlying the continued good performance for the follicular phase appear however to be different from those reflected in P1 and lag 2 T2 P3 peak latencies, because both measures were longer during the follicular phase than during the menstrual phase irrespective of test order (interactions including cycle phase and test order all F < 0.98, all p > .34).…”

“…However, that the AB was not generally larger for the first experimental session argues against the possibility that only test order, and therefore task practice, could be responsible for the observed effect of cycle phase on the AB. In line with this conclusion, for a moderate number of sessions a reduction of the AB is generally not reported (Choi et al, 2012;Kranczioch and Thorne, 2013; but see Taatgen et al, 2009 for some evidence of a potential reduction of the AB at the beginning of an experimental session), though it has been shown that after an average of 15 sessions of the AB task a significant reduction of the AB can be found (Maki and Padmanabhan, 1994). In contrast, a rather consistent finding is an improvement of T2 performance that is however importantly not specific to the AB lag(s) (Kranczioch and Thorne, 2013;Nakatani et al, 2012;Seiffert and DiLollo, 1997).…”

The effects of motivational reward on the pathological attentional blink following right hemisphere stroke

“…Such an explanation is consistent with recent research in healthy subjects that the AB can be eliminated by prior exposure to the task under conditions in which T2 is made salient (Choi, Chang, Shibata, Sasaki, & Watanabe, 2012).…”

The Attentional Blink Impairs Detection and Delays Encoding of Visual Information: Evidence from Human Electrophysiology

“…This effect is referred to as lag 1 sparing and it is thought to reflect T1 and T2 being processed together within a single attentional episode (DellʼAcqua, Dux, Wyble, & Jolicoeur, 2012;Wyble, Potter, Bowman, & Nieuwenstein, 2011;Wyble, Bowman, & Nieuwenstein, 2009;Chun & Potter, 1995). fMRI (Choi, Chang, Shibata, Sasaki, & Watanabe, 2012;Kranczioch, Debener, Schwarzbach, Goebel, & Engel, 2005;Marois & Ivanoff, 2005;Marois, Yi, & Chun, 2004;Marcantoni, Lepage, Beaudoin, Bourgouin, & Richer, 2003) and PET (Slagter et al, 2012) explorations have localized AB effects to a frontoparietal network composed of core nodes in the posterior parietal and dorsolateral pFC that support a variety of attention tasks (e.g., Corbetta & Shulman, 2002;Desimone & Duncan, 1995). A set of additional areas have been shown to be susceptible to the AB influence, including striate (Williams, Visser, Cunnington, & Mattingley, 2008) and extrastriate visual areas (e.g., DellʼAcqua, Sessa, Jolicoeur, & Robitaille, 2006;Marois et al, 2004), and subcortical structures (i.e., BG and locus coeruleous), whose roles have been incorporated in neural instantiations of 1 University of Padova, 2 The University of Queensland, 3 AB models (Colzato, Slagter, de Rover, & Hommel, 2011;Hommel et al, 2006;Nieuwenhuis, Gilzenrat, Holmes, & Cohen, 2005).…”