Increase in internetwork functional connectivity in the human brain with attention capture.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Network Science

Background:

• Attention is typically viewed as selective.
• However, salient, unexpected events can capture attention, triggering broad systemic effects.
• The neural mechanisms of this widespread attention capture are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the brain's functional connectivity changes when attention is captured by salient, unexpected stimuli.
• To explore the relationship between these connectivity changes and cognitive/psychophysiological responses.
• To determine if these network dynamics are shared with conscious perception.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
• Graph theory analysis was applied to assess changes in functional connectivity.
• Task-irrelevant "oddball" stimuli were presented during a target-search task.

Main Results:

• Salient, task-irrelevant stimuli increased internetwork functional connectivity.
• This increase led to decreased network modularity, facilitating information integration.
• The observed network changes habituated with repeated stimulus presentation.
• These changes were similar to those seen with conscious target perception.

Conclusions:

• Attention capture by salient events induces large-scale, distributed changes in brain functional connectivity.
• These widespread network dynamics may underlie the integration of information during unexpected events.
• Common neural network dynamics might be involved in both attentional capture and conscious awareness.