How does attention attenuate target–distractor interference in vision?: Evidence from magnetoencephalographic recordings

• Published in: Brain research. Cognitive brain research Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 17 - 29
• Main Authors: Hopf, J.-M, Boelmans, K, Schoenfeld, A.M, Heinze, H.-J, Luck, S.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.12.2002
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention - physiology; Attentional resolution; Distractor attenuation; Electroencephalography - methods; Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology; Female; Humans; Magnetoencephalography - methods; Male; Neural activity; Orientation; Photic Stimulation; Psychophysics; Reaction Time; Time Factors; Vision, Ocular - physiology; Visual Fields - physiology; Visual Perception; Visual search; Attentional resolution; Neural basis of behaviour; Visual search; Neural activity; Distractor attenuation
• ISSN: 0926-6410
• DOI: 10.1016/S0926-6410(02)00213-6

This study used magnetoencephalographic and electroencephalographic recordings to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie the attentional resolution of ambiguous feature coding in visual search. We addressed this issue by comparing neural activity related to target discrimination under conditions of more versus less feature overlap between the target and distractor items. The results show that increasing feature overlap leads to a focal enhancement of neural activity in ventral occipito-temporal areas, consistent with the larger need to attenuate distractor interference. Furthermore, the results suggest that distractor attenuation proceeds as a stepwise operation, with different spatial locations containing interfering features being suppressed successively. These findings support theories of visual search that emphasize location-based attentional selection as a key mechanism in resolving ambiguous feature coding in vision.