The Time Course of Attention Engagement in a Single-stream Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Design

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Electrophysiology
• Visual Perception

Background:

• The attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon where the second of two targets presented in rapid succession is often missed.
• Current models of AB debate whether attentional engagement or post-attentional processing limitations cause this failure of awareness.
• A direct neural marker to track attentional engagement during the AB has been lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of attentional engagement during the attentional blink.
• To determine if the bilateral N2 posterior contralateral (N2pcb) event-related potential component can serve as a marker for attentional engagement during AB.
• To differentiate between attentional limitation and post-attentional processing limitation models of the AB.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of electrophysiological data from a prior study using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP).
• Participants identified target letters within RSVP streams of digits.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed, specifically comparing target-present and target-absent trials to isolate neural activity related to the second target.

Main Results:

• The bilateral N2 posterior contralateral (N2pcb) component was present even during the attentional blink.
• Subtraction of ERPs from target-absent trials from target-present trials revealed sustained N2pcb activity.
• This indicates that attentional engagement for the second target is largely preserved during the AB.

Conclusions:

• Attentional engagement for the second target is not disrupted during the attentional blink.
• The attentional blink likely results from limitations in post-attentional processing rather than a failure of attention.
• These findings support models of the attentional blink that emphasize post-attentional processing limitations.