Facilitation by exogenous attention for static and dynamic gestalt groups

Attentional mechanisms allow the brain to selectively allocate its resources to stimuli of interest within the huge amount of information reaching its sensory systems. The voluntary component of attention, endogenous attention, can be allocated in a flexible manner depending on the goals and strategies of the observer. On the other hand, the reflexive component, exogenous attention, is driven by the stimulus. Here, we investigated how exogenous attention is deployed to moving stimuli that form distinct perceptual groups. We showed that exogenous attention is deployed according to a reference frame that moves along with the stimulus. Moreover, in addition to the cued stimulus, exogenous attention is deployed to all elements forming a perceptual group. These properties provide a basis for the efficient deployment of exogenous attention under ecological viewing conditions.