Dissociable neural mechanisms underlie value-driven and selection-driven attentional capture.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Stimuli linked to rewards automatically capture attention.
• Training can make previously relevant stimuli capture attention even without rewards.
• The neural basis for these two types of attentional bias is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how selection history influences attentional capture.
• To compare the neural mechanisms of selection-history-driven attention with value-driven attention.

Main Methods:

• Participants underwent a four-day visual search training task.
• A subsequent test phase involved visual search for a shape target, with color as a task-irrelevant distractor.
• Neuroimaging (fMRI) was used to examine brain activity during the test phase.

Main Results:

• Slower response times were observed when previously trained target colors appeared as distractors.
• Former target colors elicited preferential activation in sensory areas.
• Attentional capture by selection history showed a more right-lateralized activation pattern compared to reward-driven capture.
• No significant activity was detected in the caudate tail.

Conclusions:

• Attentional capture due to selection history is primarily mediated by plasticity in sensory processing areas.
• Reward history and selection history influence attention through separate neural pathways.
• These findings indicate dissociable mechanisms underlying experience-dependent attentional biases.