Covert attention modulates visual perception in early infancy

Visual attention enhances perception by facilitating detection, localization, and identification of stimuli. Classic accounts propose that such modulation depends on feedback from higher cortical areas, whereas recent evidence suggests contributions from feedforward processes within early visual regions. Infants provide a unique opportunity to test these mechanisms because their feedback pathways remain immature during the first half of the first year. Here, we examined whether covert attention influences perception in 3- to 4-month-old infants using a spatial cueing task. In Experiment 1, infants discriminated orientation, and in Experiment 2, they discriminated motion direction of cued peripheral gratings, despite not making eye movements. These findings demonstrate that covert attention modulates perception in early infancy, indicating that attentional effects can emerge via feedforward processes before the maturation of top-down feedback.