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Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
Published on: October 24, 2012
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Predictive remapping leaves a behaviorally measurable attentional trace on eye-centered brain maps.
Chuyao Yan1,2, Tao He3, Zhiguo Wang4,5
1Institute of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, 2318 Yuhangtang Rd., Hangzhou, 311121, China.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|February 26, 2021
Summary
The brain uses predictive remapping to maintain spatial attention during eye movements. This process creates a retinotopic trace that sustains attention for hundreds of milliseconds after saccades.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Visual Perception
Background:
- The brain must maintain spatial attention despite objects shifting on the retina during saccades (eye movements).
- Predictive remapping, using upcoming saccade vectors, is hypothesized to compensate for retinal displacement on eye-centered maps.
- Previous research shows pre-saccadic attentional shifts, but the persistence of these effects post-saccade is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether predictively remapped attentional effects persist on eye-centered brain maps after saccades without external input.
- To examine the temporal dynamics of spatial attention maintenance following saccadic eye movements.
Main Methods:
- Utilized inhibition of return (IOR), an attentional phenomenon that remaps predictively before saccades.
- Employed three cueing tasks: a non-saccade task, a return-saccade task with two saccades, and a no-remapping task.
- Measured IOR at remapped and cued retinal loci to assess spatial coding and persistence.
Main Results:
- Inhibition of return (IOR) was observed at the remapped retinal locus 430 ms after the saccade triggering remapping.
- Results confirmed that IOR is coded in world-centered coordinates post-saccade.
- The lingering IOR effect was not confounded by attention spillover, indicating a robust retinotopic trace.
Conclusions:
- Predictive remapping leaves a significant attentional trace on eye-centered (retinotopic) brain maps.
- This retinotopic trace is sufficient to sustain spatial attention for several hundred milliseconds following saccades.
- The findings support the hypothesis that predictive remapping is a key mechanism for maintaining spatial attention during naturalistic eye movements.
