Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 20, 2025
06:46
Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
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Spatial and feature-selective attention interact to drive selective coding in frontoparietal cortex
Nadene Dermody1, Romy Lorenz2, Erin Goddard3
1MRC Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK.
Neuropsychologia
|May 23, 2025
Summary
Selective attention, both spatial and feature-based, interact multiplicatively in the brain's multiple-demand network. This precise neural tuning prioritizes relevant information, enhancing cognitive control.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Selective attention is crucial for processing information.
- Spatial and feature-selective attention have distinct neural underpinnings.
- These attention types often work together in real-world scenarios.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interaction between spatial and feature-selective attention.
- To understand how this interaction affects information coding in the multiple-demand (MD) network.
- To explore the neural mechanisms of attentional control.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
- Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to decode neural representations.
- Covert attention to object features (color, shape) and spatial locations (left, right) was manipulated.
Main Results:
- Spatial and feature-selective attention showed multiplicative interactions in information coding within MD and visual regions.
- Neural activity precisely represented attended information, with stimulus features and discrimination difficulty encoded on separate dimensions.
- Irrelevant visual information was not significantly encoded.
Conclusions:
- Attentional control involves precise neural tuning rather than broad boosting of processing.
- The multiple-demand network exhibits highly selective coding of behaviorally relevant information across multiple dimensions.
- This suggests a sophisticated mechanism for prioritizing information under attentional demands.
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