Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

High-Level and Low-Level Awareness01:19

High-Level and Low-Level Awareness

616
Controlled processes in human consciousness represent high-alert mental states where individuals deliberately focus their attention on achieving specific goals. Controlled processes can be seen in situations like mastering new technology, where a person might become so absorbed that they ignore surrounding distractions. Such processes involve selective attention, requiring one to concentrate on particular elements of experience while disregarding others. These are governed by executive...
616
Subconsciousness and No Awareness01:15

Subconsciousness and No Awareness

632
The concept of subconscious awareness refers to the processing of information below the level of conscious thought, which significantly influences both behaviors and decisions. It is also known as waking subconscious awareness. This complex level of cognition operates without the direct awareness of the individual, facilitating rapid and simultaneous handling of multiple information streams.
An illustrative example of subconscious processing is its role in problem-solving. Often, individuals...
632
Naturalistic Observations02:30

Naturalistic Observations

16.9K
If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...
16.9K
Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior01:28

Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior

201
Automatic processing refers to the cognitive operations that occur without conscious intent or awareness, playing a fundamental role in shaping social cognition and behavior. These processes enable individuals to navigate complex social environments efficiently by relying on mental shortcuts and pre-existing knowledge structures known as schemas. One of the most influential mechanisms underlying automatic processing is priming, which subtly activates mental representations through exposure to...
201

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A collaborative guide to Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging (RIFT): Methods, insights, and recommendations.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

Selective removal of visual working memory items at test.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2026
Same author

Selective removal of visual working memory items at test.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

AI assists adversarial collaboration in debate on minority salience.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Multitarget Visual Search Flexibly Switches Between Concurrent and Sequential Search Modes.

Psychological science·2026
Same author

Past and present goals are represented concurrently during visual search.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

Does stimulus preceding negativity reflect predictions in a somatosensory roving paradigm?

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Temporal Dynamics of EEG Reflect Continuous Error Correction During Force Control.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Frontoparietal Hub Connectivity Integrates Information from Multiple Sources.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Mapping the Heart-Brain Continuum beyond Heart Failure: Why Neurology Matters.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Emergence of behavioral tinnitus in gerbils is associated with reduced spontaneous rates in single auditory nerve fibers.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Decoding the neural stages from action and object recognition to mentalizing.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 10, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

10.3K

Population-Level Activity Dissociates Preparatory Overt from Covert Attention.

Damian Koevoet1, Vicky Voet2, Henry M Jones3

  • 1Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, The Netherlands d.koevoet@uu.nl.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|November 21, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Neural signatures for overt and covert attention overlap but diverge rapidly. Overt attention utilizes an additional frontal neural process, demonstrating population-level dissociation beyond single neurons.

Keywords:
attentioneye movementsneural decodingpopulationspatial selectivity

More Related Videos

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
09:37

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

9.5K
A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
08:45

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

9.6K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 10, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

10.3K
Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
09:37

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

9.5K
A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
08:45

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

9.6K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Attention

Background:

  • Neural signatures of preparing overt eye movements and covert spatial attention are thought to overlap significantly, recruiting similar brain areas.
  • While single-cell studies show some dissociation, it's proposed that many visuo-oculomotor cells are involved in both processes, leading to functional overlap.
  • Understanding the neural basis of selective visual processing is crucial for cognitive function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To directly test the proposal that neural signatures of preparatory overt and covert attention largely overlap at the population level.
  • To investigate whether population-level neural activity dissociates preparatory overt from covert attention using electroencephalography (EEG).
  • To identify specific neural processes contributing to the differences between overt and covert attention.

Main Methods:

  • Combined human EEG recordings with sensitive decoding techniques to analyze neural activity.
  • Utilized inverted encoding modeling to assess the spatial tuning of neural populations.
  • Employed cross-decoding analyses to determine if additional neural processes are recruited during overt attention.

Main Results:

  • Neural decoding reliably distinguished between overt and covert attention shifts well before saccade initiation.
  • Inverted encoding modeling revealed earlier and sharper spatially-tuned neural activity during preparatory overt attention compared to covert attention.
  • Cross-decoding indicated that preparatory overt attention recruits at least one additional, early-emerging frontal neural process, likely related to motor preparation or predictive remapping.

Conclusions:

  • The neural signatures of overt and covert attention, while overlapping, diverge rapidly at the population level.
  • Preparatory overt attention employs an additional spatially selective neural process not present in covert attention, leading to population-level dissociation.
  • These findings demonstrate that population-level neural activity, not just single-cell activity, can dissociate preparatory overt from covert attention.