Object-based attentional modulation of biological motion processing: spatiotemporal dynamics using functional...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Perception

Background:

• The lateral temporal cortex mediates biological motion perception.
• The role of attention in modulating neural activity within this region remains unclear.
• It is unknown whether biological motion processing requires attention or occurs preattentively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the spatiotemporal effects of attention on biological motion processing.
• To determine if attention modulates neural activity in the lateral temporal cortex during biological motion perception.
• To ascertain whether biological motion is processed preattentively or requires attentional resources.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
• High-density electroencephalography (hd-EEG) was utilized.
• Cortically constrained source estimation methods were applied to analyze neural activity.

Main Results:

• Attention directed to tool motion suppressed the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response in the right superior temporal sulcus (STS)/middle temporal gyrus (MTG).
• Attention directed to biological motion suppressed the BOLD response in the left inferior temporal sulcus (ITS)/MTG.
• Category-specific responses showed modulation by attention starting around 450 ms post-stimulus onset.

Conclusions:

• Cortical processing of biological motion is significantly modulated by attention.
• These findings contradict the notion of preattentive processing of biological motion when competing stimuli are present.
• Attention-based segregation of motion category-specific responses emerges late in the processing stream (several hundred milliseconds).