Mechanisms of Visuospatial Attention: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials

A series of experiments are reviewed that studied mechanisms underlying visuospatial attention by measuring the influence of attentional selectivity on event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The results are interpreted within a theoretical framework developed by LaBerge (1995)and LaBerge and Brown (1989). Spatial attention can have an effect on occipital P1 and N1 components in trial-by-trial cueing situations, which indicate a spatially selective modulation of processing in the VI-IT pathway. However, this effect is strongly attenuated when unattended locations are potentially relevant, suggesting that early attentional modulations within the ventral stream are optional rather than obligatory. A distinct parietal negativity (Nd1) that is elicited in cued attention tasks is assumed to reflect the existence of a transient location expectation gradient within the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). This effect is not present in sustained attention situations. The factthatthis effectis also observed with audito...

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