Unattended and attended visual change detection of motion as indexed by event-related potentials and its behavioral correlates

Abstract

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) is a negative-going component amongst cognitive event-related potentials. It reflects an automatic change-detection process that occurs when an infrequent stimulus is presented that is incongruent with the representation of a frequent (standard) event. In our research we use visual motion (more specifically motion direction changes) to study vMMN. Since movement in the visual field is quite irresistible to our brain, the question in hand is, if the detection of motion direction changes is dependent on attention directed to the stimulus. We present a new continuous whole-display stimulus configuration, where the attention capturing primary task of motion onset detection is in the central part of the visual display and visual oddball sequence on the background. The visual oddball paradigm consisted of 85% standard and 15% deviant events, motion direction change being the deviant. We show that even though the unattended visual oddball sequence does not affect the performance in the demanding behavioral primary task, the differences appearing in that sequence are noticed by our brain and reflected in two distinguishable vMMN components in occipital and parietal scalp locations. When attention is directed toward the visual oddball sequence, we only see different processing of standards and deviants in later time-windows and task-related activity in frontal scalp location. Our results are obtained under strict attention manipulation conditions.

vMMN for schematic faces: automatic detection of change in emotional expression

“…A good candidate for such a feature is visual motion (see Kuldkepp et al, 2013) differing in direction, velocity and duration, for example. We consider the future development of the visual optimal paradigm for the vMMN measurement truly promising as this would considerably facilitate its clinical implementation.…”

“…Some have used a story listening with a later check about its contents (e.g., Zhao and Li, 2006; Astikainen and Hietanen, 2009; Maekawa et al, 2009; Li et al, 2012); others have introduced a target detection visual task unrelated to vMNN stimuli (counting targets in Chang et al, 2010; button presses as a response to the target: Tales et al, 1999,2008; Tales and Butler, 2006). Sometimes the target is presented in the center of the visual field, while standards and deviants appear more peripherally (e.g., in Kremláček, 2006; Stefanics et al, 2012; Kuldkepp et al, 2013). …”

Brain activity from stimuli that are not perceived: Visual mismatch negativity during binocular rivalry suppression

“…That is, when we attend to or are conscious of something other than the blinking indicator light, such as a pedestrian crossing the road or a song on the car stereo, generative models for the blinking light continue to be established, tested, and updated. Although there is plenty of evidence showing that vMMN occurs in the absence of attention to the standards and deviants (Berti, 2011;Heslenfeld, 2002;Kimura & Takeda, 2013;Kreml aček et al, 2013;Kuldkepp, Kreegipuu, Raidvee, N€ a€ at€ anen, & Allik, 2013;Pazo-Alvarez, Amenedo, & Cadaveira, 2004; for reviews, see Czigler, 2007;Stefanics et al, 2014), to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence showing that vMMN occurs in the absence of consciousness of those stimuli: previous attempts have failed either to elicit a vMMN from stimuli that are not perceived (Czigler, Weisz, & Winkler, 2007;Flynn, Liasis, Gardner, & Towell, 2016;Meng et al, 2015) or to hide their stimuli from consciousness (Jack et al, 2015;Kogai, Aoyama, Amano, & Takeda, 2011;van Rhijn, Roeber, & O'Shea, 2013). In the experiment we report here, we sought to provide that evidence.…”

Visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN): a Prediction Error Signal in the Visual Modality

“…As a function of task difficulty, the latency of the difference potential (i.e., the vMMN) increased, indicating that processes underlying vMMN to orientation changes are not fully independent of the attention demands of the ongoing tasks. Kuldkepp et al (2013) used rare changes in direction of peripheral motion to evoke vMMN applying a novel continuous whole-display stimulus configuration. The demanding distractor task involved motion onset detection and was presented in the center of the visual field.…”