Effector-independent Representations Guide Sequential Target Selection Biases in Action.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Human Motor Control

Background:

• Automatic attention biases toward recently selected target features can transfer across different actions and sensory modalities.
• Previous research suggests a common neural basis for selection history across effectors, but the precise brain regions involved remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether recently selected target features are encoded in overlapping or distinct brain regions across different effectors (eyes vs. hands).
• To clarify the neural substrates of experience-driven selection biases that require the coordination of multiple actions.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed with a priming of pop-out task.
• Participants performed target selection using either a reach (hand) or saccade (eye) action.
• Multivoxel cross-classification analyses were used to examine patterns of brain activity.

Main Results:

• Color priming effects were driven by shared, effector-independent representations of recent selection history.
• The intraparietal sulcus (IPS) showed common activation for target color repetition/switching, while the dorsal anterior insula showed effector-specific activation.
• Fine-grained activity patterns in the IPS and medial temporal lobe encoded selection history independently of the effector used, with models trained on one effector predicting behavior in the other.
• Model generalization performance in IPS and medial temporal lobe correlated with individual differences in behavioral priming sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• Neural representations of recent selection history are largely shared across different effectors, supporting an effector-independent mechanism for attention biases.
• The intraparietal sulcus and medial temporal lobe play a crucial role in maintaining and utilizing selection history information across different actions.
• These findings advance our understanding of how the brain integrates experience to guide attention and action selection.