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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 28, 2025

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Published on: March 18, 2019

Steady-state visual evoked potentials differentiate between internally and externally directed attention.

Lior Kritzman¹, Moran Eidelman-Rothman², Andreas Keil³

¹School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel; Sagol Center for Brain and Mind, Reichman University, Israel.

|March 27, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers found that the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) can distinguish between internal and external attention. Internal attention, like focusing on heartbeats, reduced ssVEP responses, unlike external visual attention.

Keywords:

EEG Heartbeat-evoked potential Internal attention Steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP)

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Last Updated: Sep 28, 2025

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Neurophysiology

Background:

External attention is well-studied, but internal attention (thoughts, bodily signals) is gaining interest due to links with interoception, meditation, and mental health.
Existing methods for studying internal attention are limited.
The steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) is a validated measure of attention, but its use for internal attention is unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if ssVEP can differentiate between internally and externally directed attention.
To expand the methodological tools for studying internal attention.
To explore the relationship between ssVEP, alpha-band activity, and heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) during internal and external attention.

Main Methods:

Participants performed a task involving flickering dots to elicit ssVEPs.
Two conditions were used: counting visual targets (external attention) and counting heartbeats (internal attention).
ssVEP, alpha-band activity, and HEP were measured and compared between conditions.

Main Results:

ssVEP magnitude and phase synchronization decreased during internal attention compared to external attention.
Internal attention was associated with greater suppression of parieto-occipital alpha-band activity and increased HEP amplitude.
A trade-off was observed: shifts in attention correlated with reciprocal changes in ssVEP, HEP, and alpha-band activity.

Conclusions:

ssVEP measures are capable of differentiating between internal and external attention.
Internal attention involves distinct neural processing compared to external attention, evidenced by changes in ssVEP, alpha, and HEP.
Shifting attention between internal and external focus involves reallocating limited processing resources shared between sensory and interoceptive systems.