Spatial attention tunes temporal processing in early visual cortex by speeding and slowing alpha oscillations

Poppy Sharp; Tjerk Gutteling; David Melcher; Clayton Hickey

doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-22.2022

Spatial attention tunes temporal processing in early visual cortex by speeding and slowing alpha oscillations

Poppy Sharp, Tjerk Gutteling, David Melcher, Clayton Hickey^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

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Abstract

The perception of dynamic visual stimuli relies on two apparently conflicting perceptual mechanisms: rapid visual input must sometimes be integrated into unitary percepts but at other times must be segregated or parsed into separate objects or events. Though they have opposite effects on our perceptual experience, the deployment of spatial attention benefits both operations. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this impact of spatial attention on temporal perception. Here we record magnetoencephalography (MEG) in male and female humans to demonstrate that the deployment of spatial attention for the purpose of segregating or integrating visual stimuli impacts pre-stimulus oscillatory activity in retinotopic visual brain areas where the attended location is represented. Alpha-band oscillations contralateral to an attended location are therefore faster than ipsilateral oscillations when stimuli appearing at this location will need to be segregated, but slower in expectation of the need for integration, consistent with the idea that alpha frequency is linked to perceptual sampling rate. These results demonstrate a novel interaction between temporal visual processing and the allocation of attention in space.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	7824-7832
Number of pages	9
Journal	The Journal of Neuroscience
Volume	42
Issue number	41
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-22.2022
Publication status	Published - 12 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

VoR not yet available as of 25/11/2022; should be available with CC-BY licence in March 2023.

Funding Information:
Received Mar. 14, 2022; revised June 23, 2022; accepted July 26, 2022. Author contributions: P.S., D.M., and C.H. designed research; P.S. performed research; P.S., T.G., and C.H. analyzed data; P.S. wrote the first draft of the paper; P.S., T.G., D.M., and C.H. edited the paper; P.S., D.M., and C.H. wrote the paper. This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant Agreements 313658 (to D.M.) and 804360 (to C.H.). We thank Jeff Anesi for assistance with data collection and David Acunzo for discussion. The authors declare no competing financial interests. Correspondence should be addressed to Clayton Hickey at [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-22.2022 Copyright © 2022 the authors

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant Agreements 313658 (to D.M.) and 804360 (to C.H.). We thank Jeff Anesi for assistance with data collection and David Acunzo for discussion.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 the authors.

Keywords

Alpha instantaneous Alpha frequency
MEG
spatial attention
temporal attention

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Medicine

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10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-22.2022Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

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title = "Spatial attention tunes temporal processing in early visual cortex by speeding and slowing alpha oscillations",

abstract = "The perception of dynamic visual stimuli relies on two apparently conflicting perceptual mechanisms: rapid visual input must sometimes be integrated into unitary percepts but at other times must be segregated or parsed into separate objects or events. Though they have opposite effects on our perceptual experience, the deployment of spatial attention benefits both operations. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this impact of spatial attention on temporal perception. Here we record magnetoencephalography (MEG) in male and female humans to demonstrate that the deployment of spatial attention for the purpose of segregating or integrating visual stimuli impacts pre-stimulus oscillatory activity in retinotopic visual brain areas where the attended location is represented. Alpha-band oscillations contralateral to an attended location are therefore faster than ipsilateral oscillations when stimuli appearing at this location will need to be segregated, but slower in expectation of the need for integration, consistent with the idea that alpha frequency is linked to perceptual sampling rate. These results demonstrate a novel interaction between temporal visual processing and the allocation of attention in space. ",

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note = "VoR not yet available as of 25/11/2022; should be available with CC-BY licence in March 2023. Funding Information: Received Mar. 14, 2022; revised June 23, 2022; accepted July 26, 2022. Author contributions: P.S., D.M., and C.H. designed research; P.S. performed research; P.S., T.G., and C.H. analyzed data; P.S. wrote the first draft of the paper; P.S., T.G., D.M., and C.H. edited the paper; P.S., D.M., and C.H. wrote the paper. This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant Agreements 313658 (to D.M.) and 804360 (to C.H.). We thank Jeff Anesi for assistance with data collection and David Acunzo for discussion. The authors declare no competing financial interests. Correspondence should be addressed to Clayton Hickey at [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0509-22.2022 Copyright {\textcopyright} 2022 the authors Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant Agreements 313658 (to D.M.) and 804360 (to C.H.). We thank Jeff Anesi for assistance with data collection and David Acunzo for discussion. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2022 the authors.",

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N2 - The perception of dynamic visual stimuli relies on two apparently conflicting perceptual mechanisms: rapid visual input must sometimes be integrated into unitary percepts but at other times must be segregated or parsed into separate objects or events. Though they have opposite effects on our perceptual experience, the deployment of spatial attention benefits both operations. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this impact of spatial attention on temporal perception. Here we record magnetoencephalography (MEG) in male and female humans to demonstrate that the deployment of spatial attention for the purpose of segregating or integrating visual stimuli impacts pre-stimulus oscillatory activity in retinotopic visual brain areas where the attended location is represented. Alpha-band oscillations contralateral to an attended location are therefore faster than ipsilateral oscillations when stimuli appearing at this location will need to be segregated, but slower in expectation of the need for integration, consistent with the idea that alpha frequency is linked to perceptual sampling rate. These results demonstrate a novel interaction between temporal visual processing and the allocation of attention in space.

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ER -

Spatial attention tunes temporal processing in early visual cortex by speeding and slowing alpha oscillations

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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