Visual Benefits in Apparent Motion Displays: Automatically Driven Spatial and Temporal Anticipation Are Partially Dissociated

Abstract

Many behaviourally relevant sensory events such as motion stimuli and speech have an intrinsic spatio-temporal structure. This will engage intentional and most likely unintentional (automatic) prediction mechanisms enhancing the perception of upcoming stimuli in the event stream. Here we sought to probe the anticipatory processes that are automatically driven by rhythmic input streams in terms of their spatial and temporal components. To this end, we employed an apparent visual motion paradigm testing the effects of pre-target motion on lateralized visual target discrimination. The motion stimuli either moved towards or away from peripheral target positions (valid vs. invalid spatial motion cueing) at a rhythmic or arrhythmic pace (valid vs. invalid temporal motion cueing). Crucially, we emphasized automatic motion-induced anticipatory processes by rendering the motion stimuli non-predictive of upcoming target position (by design) and task-irrelevant (by instruction), and by creating instead endogenous (orthogonal) expectations using symbolic cueing. Our data revealed that the apparent motion cues automatically engaged both spatial and temporal anticipatory processes, but that these processes were dissociated. We further found evidence for lateralisation of anticipatory temporal but not spatial processes. This indicates that distinct mechanisms may drive automatic spatial and temporal extrapolation of upcoming events from rhythmic event streams. This contrasts with previous findings that instead suggest an interaction between spatial and temporal attention processes when endogenously driven. Our results further highlight the need for isolating intentional from unintentional processes for better understanding the various anticipatory mechanisms engaged in processing behaviourally relevant stimuli with predictable spatio-temporal structure such as motion and speech.

Frequency and power of human alpha oscillations drift systematically with time-on-task

“…Additionally, the current results may have implications for attempts to entrain oscillatory activity through methods such as visual flicker (Ahrens et al, 2015;Capilla et al, 2011;de Graaf et al, 2013;Gulbinaite et al, 2017;Keitel et al, 2018a;Keitel et al, 2014;Mathewson et al, 2012;Notbohm and Herrmann, 2016;Spaak et al, 2014) and non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation (NTBS) (Helfrich et al, 2014;Romei et al, 2016;Thut et al, 2017;Veniero et al, 2017). It has recently been suggested that aligning external stimulation frequency with the endogenous peak alpha frequency may represent an optimal approach to effectively enhance/entrain alpha oscillations (Cecere et al, 2015;Gulbinaite et al, 2017;Romei et al, 2016;Thut et al, 2017;Vossen et al, 2015).…”

Both dorsal and ventral attention network nodes are implicated in exogenously driven visuospatial anticipation

“…In terms of experimental paradigms, predictive symbolic cues are typically employed to engage endogenous attention, whilst transient and non-predictive sensory events, such as brief flashes, are used to test exogenous orienting (Petersen & Posner, 2012;Posner, 1980). Alternatively, visual flicker and apparent motion streams can exogenously drive attention (Ahrens, Veniero, Gross, Harvey, & Thut, 2015;Breska & Deouell, 2014;de Graaf et al, 2013;Rohenkohl, Coull, & Nobre, 2011). However, in the conventional design, tests for exogenous attention are typically employed in isolation, without controlling for endogenous attention (but see Berger et al, 2005;Ahrens et al, 2015).…”

“…Alternatively, visual flicker and apparent motion streams can exogenously drive attention (Ahrens, Veniero, Gross, Harvey, & Thut, 2015;Breska & Deouell, 2014;de Graaf et al, 2013;Rohenkohl, Coull, & Nobre, 2011). However, in the conventional design, tests for exogenous attention are typically employed in isolation, without controlling for endogenous attention (but see Berger et al, 2005;Ahrens et al, 2015). Consequently, participants may endogenously engage with the exogenous cues and adopt strategies to predict forthcoming events, by attempting to extract regularities based on the nature of events, even if this information is random and non-informative (Ahrens et al, 2015;Breska & Deouell, 2014).…”

“…Here, we sought to examine the neural substrates of exogenously driven attentional anticipation, when endogenous engagement is controlled for. We investigated to what extent there is a functional segregation (versus overlap) of the dorsal and ventral attention network nodes by combining TMS over TPJ or IPS with a visuospatial attention paradigm previously shown to behaviourally dissociate both types of attention processes (Ahrens et al, 2015).…”

Different effects of spatial and temporal attention on the integration and segregation of stimuli in time

“…Similarly, in a oddball detection task using auditory stimuli, both spatial and temporal orienting were found to benefit spatial processing performance (Lange, Krämer, & Röder, 2006). Although there is evidence of dissociations between the effects on performance of spatial and temporal orienting following exogenous cueing (Ahrens, Veniero, Gross, Harvey, & Thut, 2015;Jones, 2014), when attentional shifts are endogenously driven, the evidence points to similarities, and even interacting performance benefits, from spatial and temporal orienting. Rohenkohl, Gould, Pessoa, and Nobre (2014) reported that benefits to spatial discrimination performance are afforded by both spatial and temporal orienting, in addition to characterizing the interaction between these two types of orienting.…”