The P4pc: an electrophysiological marker of attentional disengagement?

The processing of successive targets requires that attention be engaged and disengaged. Whereas attentional engagement can be studied by means of the N2pc component of the event-related potential (ERP), no ERP component has been linked to attentional disengagement. Here, we report the finding of such a component using an RSVP paradigm with multiple, successive targets and with a spatial-cuing paradigm. In both experiments, disengagement of attention was necessary to attend to subsequent targets. A distinct waveform following the N2pc, which we call the P4pc (Positivity 400 ms post-target posterior contralateral), was found. The P4pc was found when a lateralized cue indicated that attention would be needed for the processing of a target at either the same or a different location as the cue, but not when only the cue was to be responded to, indicating that the need to disengage attention is a prerequisite for the P4pc to occur. We expect the P4pc to provide a valuable addition to the set of electrophysiological measures used to study the dynamics and mechanisms of visual attention and visual search.

[1]  Jeremy M. Wolfe,et al.  Just Say No: How Are Visual Searches Terminated When There Is No Target Present? , 1996, Cognitive Psychology.

[2]  Pierre Jolicoeur,et al.  Tracking the Location of Visuospatial Attention in a Contingent Capture Paradigm , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[3]  Martha J. Farah,et al.  Mechanisms of Spatial Attention: The Relation of Macrostructure to Microstructure in Parietal Neglect , 1994, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[4]  J. Theeuwes,et al.  Electrophysiological Evidence of the Capture of Visual Attention , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[5]  A. Caramazza,et al.  An electrophysiological assessment of distractor suppression in visual search tasks. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[6]  Eric Ruthruff,et al.  Contingent attentional capture by top-down control settings: converging evidence from event-related potentials. , 2008, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[7]  Ritske De Jong,et al.  The Role of Preparation in Overlapping-task Performance , 1995, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[8]  Bruno G. Breitmeyer,et al.  The first half second : the microgenesis and temporal dynamics of unconscious and conscious visual processes , 2006 .

[9]  Torsten Schubert,et al.  The central attentional limitation and executive control. , 2008, Frontiers in bioscience : a journal and virtual library.

[10]  Elkan G. Akyürek,et al.  The neural processing fate of singleton target and nontarget stimuli , 2010, Brain Research.

[11]  Seth A. Herd,et al.  Serial visual search from a parallel model , 2005, Vision Research.

[12]  R Dell'Acqua,et al.  Spatial attention freezes during the attention blink. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[13]  Geoffrey F Woodman,et al.  Serial deployment of attention during visual search. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  Roy Luria,et al.  Increased Control Demand Results in Serial Processing , 2005, Psychological science.

[15]  S. Luck,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of feature analysis during visual search. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[16]  Martin Eimer,et al.  Involuntary Attentional Capture is Determined by Task Set: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[17]  S. Luck,et al.  Are the Same Attentional Mechanisms Used to Detect Visual Search Targets Defined by Color, Orientation, and Motion? , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[18]  Elkan G. Akyürek,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of detecting a visual target and detecting its absence: The role of feature dimensions , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[19]  Geoffrey F. Woodman,et al.  Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search , 1999, Nature.

[20]  Darryl W. Schneider,et al.  Defining task-set reconfiguration: The case of reference point switching , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[21]  M. Eimer.  The N2pc component as an indicator of attentional selectivity. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[22]  Martin Eimer,et al.  The N2pc component and its links to attention shifts and spatially selective visual processing. , 2008, Psychophysiology.

[23]  S. Luck,et al.  Neural sources of focused attention in visual search. , 2000, Cerebral cortex.

[24]  U. Neisser.  VISUAL SEARCH. , 1964, Scientific American.

[25]  Martin Eimer,et al.  The Roles of Feature-Specific Task Set and Bottom-Up Salience in Attentional Capture : An ERP Study , 2009 .

[26]  C. C. Wood,et al.  Scalp distributions of event-related potentials: an ambiguity associated with analysis of variance models. , 1985, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[27]  Martin Eimer,et al.  Attentional capture by visual singletons is mediated by top-down task set: new evidence from the N2pc component. , 2008, Psychophysiology.

[28]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Attention selection, distractor suppression and N2pc , 2009, Cortex.

[29]  Peter Praamstra,et al.  Prior information of stimulus location: Effects on ERP measures of visual selection and response selection , 2006, Brain Research.

[30]  Pierre Jolicoeur,et al.  A psychological refractory period in access to visual short-term memory and the deployment of visual-spatial attention: multitasking processing deficits revealed by event-related potentials. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[31]  S J Luck,et al.  Spatial filtering during visual search: evidence from human electrophysiology. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  Fernando Cadaveira,et al.  N2pc and attentional capture by colour and orientation-singletons in pure and mixed visual search tasks. , 2009, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[33]  F. J. Friedrich,et al.  Effects of parietal injury on covert orienting of attention , 1984, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[34]  S. Martens,et al.  Using frequency tagging to quantify attentional deployment in a visual divided attention task. , 2009, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[35]  I..  THE ATTENTION SYSTEM OF THE HUMAN BRAIN , 2002 .

[36]  Martin Eimer,et al.  Does focused endogenous attention prevent attentional capture in pop-out visual search? , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[37]  Benoit Brisson,et al.  Electrophysiological evidence of central interference in the control of visuospatial attention , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.