Visual Attention
visual attention
Prof. Li Zhaoping
Postdoctoral position in Human Psychophysics with TMS and/or EEG (m/f/d) (TV-L E13, 100%) Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, working group of Prof. Li Zhaoping. We are looking for highly skilled and motivated individuals to work on projects aimed towards understanding visual attentional and perceptual processes using TMS and/or EEG methodologies. The framework and motivation of the projects can be found at http://www.lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/AGZL_HumanVisual.html . The projects can involve, for example, visual search tasks, stereo vision tasks, visual illusions, and will be discussed during the application process. TMS and/or EEG methodologies can be used in combination with fMRI/MRI, eye tracking, and other related methods as necessary. The postdoc will be working closely with the principal investigator and other members of Zhaoping's team when needed. We are currently hiring for a Postdoctoral position in Human Psychophysics with TMS and/or EEG (m/f/d) (TV-L E13, 100%) to join us at the next possible opportunity. Responsibilities: - Conduct and participate in research projects such as lab and equipment set up, data collection, data analysis, writing reports and papers, and presenting at scientific conferences. - Participate in routine laboratory operations, such as planning and preparations for experiments, lab maintenance and lab procedures. - Coordinate with the PI and other team members for strategies and project planning. - Coordinate with the PI and other team members for project planning, and in supervision of student projects or teaching assistance for university courses in our field. Your application: The position is available immediately and will be open until filled. Preference will be given to applications received by November 30, 2021. We look forward to receiving your application that includes a cover letter, your curriculum vitae, relevant certificates, and three names and contacts for reference letters) electronically only through this job portal (https://jobs.tue.mpg.de/jobs/148). Informal inquiries can be addressed to jobs.li@tuebingen.mpg.de. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.
Prof. Li Zhaoping
PhD position in Human Psychophysics with TMS and/or EEG (m/f/d) (TV-L E13, 65%) Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, working group of Prof. Li Zhaoping. We are looking for highly skilled and motivated individuals to work on projects aimed towards understanding visual attentional and perceptual processes using TMS and/or EEG methodologies. The framework and motivation of the projects can be found at http://www.lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/AGZL_HumanVisual.html . The projects can involve, for example, visual search tasks, stereo vision tasks, visual illusions, and will be discussed during the application process. TMS and/or EEG methodologies can be used in combination with fMRI/MRI, eye tracking, and other related methods as necessary. We are currently hiring for a PhD position in Human Psychophysics with TMS and/or EEG (TV-L E13) 65% to join us at the next possible opportunity. Responsibilities: - Conduct and participate in research projects such as lab and equipment set up, data collection, data analysis, writing reports and papers, and presenting at scientific conferences. - Participate in routine laboratory operations, such as planning and preparations for experiments, lab maintenance and lab procedures. - Participate in teaching assistance duties for university courses in our field. Your application: The position is available immediately and will be open until filled. Preference will be given to applications received by November 30, 2021. We look forward to receiving your application that includes a cover letter, your curriculum vitae, relevant certificates, and three names and contacts for reference letters) electronically only through this job portal (https://jobs.tue.mpg.de/jobs/147). Informal inquiries can be addressed to jobs.li@tuebingen.mpg.de. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.
Prof. Li Zhaoping
Postdoctoral position in Human Psychophysics with High field and/or 3T fMRI (TVöD-Bund E13, 100%) Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, department of Prof. Li Zhaoping (Dept of Sensory and Sensormotor systems), in collaboration with Prof. Klaus Scheffler (Dept of High-field magnetic resonance imaging), is looking for a highly skilled and motivated individual to work on projects to probe the hierarchical feedforward and feedback brain networks behind visual attentional and perceptual processes using human psychophysics techniques and High-field or 3T fMRI methodologies (e.g., laminar fMRI). The framework and motivation of the projects can be found at http://www.lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/AGZL_HumanVisual.html . The visual processes can involve, for example, visual search tasks, stereo vision tasks, visual illusions, and will be discussed during the application process. When needed, TMS and/or EEG, eye tracking, and other methodologies can be used in combination with fMRI/MRI. The postdoc will be working closely with the principal investigators and other members of their teams. We are currently hiring for a Postdoctoral position in Human Psychophysics with High field and/or 3T fMRI (m/f/d) (TV-L E13, 100%) to join us at the next opportunity. Responsibilities: - Conduct and participate in research projects such as lab and equipment set up, data collection, data analysis, writing reports and papers, and presenting at scientific conferences. - Participate in routine laboratory operations, such as planning and preparations for experiments, lab maintenance and lab procedures. - Coordinate with the PIs and other team members for strategies and project planning.- Participate in mentoring and supervision of student projects. Your application: The position is available immediately and will be open until filled. Preference will be given to applications received by November 30, 2021. We look forward to receiving your application that includes a cover letter, your curriculum vitae, relevant certificates, and three names and contacts for reference letters) electronically only through this job portal (https://jobs.tue.mpg.de/jobs/149). Informal inquiries can be addressed to jobs.li@tuebingen.mpg.de. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.
Marwen Belkaid
A thesis offer in neurorobotics is available on the topic of modeling affective processes for visual attention, decision-making and social behaviors. The thesis project will be carried out at the ETIS Laboratory (CNRS UMR8051) of CY Cergy Paris University, located in the Paris region.
Guiding Visual Attention in Dynamic Scenes
Sensory Consequences of Visual Actions
We use rapid eye, head, and body movements to extract information from a new part of the visual scene upon each new gaze fixation. But the consequences of such visual actions go beyond their intended sensory outcomes. On the one hand, intrinsic consequences accompany movement preparation as covert internal processes (e.g., predictive changes in the deployment of visual attention). On the other hand, visual actions have incidental consequences, side effects of moving the sensory surface to its intended goal (e.g., global motion of the retinal image during saccades). In this talk, I will present studies in which we investigated intrinsic and incidental sensory consequences of visual actions and their sensorimotor functions. Our results provide insights into continuously interacting top-down and bottom-up sensory processes, and they reify the necessity to study perception in connection to motor behavior that shapes its fundamental processes.
Neuroscience of socioeconomic status and poverty: Is it actionable?
SES neuroscience, using imaging and other methods, has revealed generalizations of interest for population neuroscience and the study of individual differences. But beyond its scientific interest, SES is a topic of societal importance. Does neuroscience offer any useful insights for promoting socioeconomic justice and reducing the harms of poverty? In this talk I will use research from my own lab and others’ to argue that SES neuroscience has the potential to contribute to policy in this area, although its application is premature at present. I will also attempt to forecast the ways in which practical solutions to the problems of poverty may emerge from SES neuroscience. Bio: Martha Farah has conducted groundbreaking research on face and object recognition, visual attention, mental imagery, and semantic memory and - in more recent times - has been at the forefront of interdisciplinary research into neuroscience and society. This deals with topics such as using fMRI for lie detection, ethics of cognitive enhancement, and effects of social deprivation on brain development.
Modeling Visual Attention in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Machine Learning
The dynamics of temporal attention
Selection is the hallmark of attention: processing improves for attended items but is relatively impaired for unattended items. It is well known that visual spatial attention changes sensory signals and perception in this selective fashion. In the work I will present, we asked whether and how attentional selection happens across time. First, our experiments revealed that voluntary temporal attention (attention to specific points in time) is selective, resulting in perceptual tradeoffs across time. Second, we measured small eye movements called microsaccades and found that directing voluntary temporal attention increases the stability of the eyes in anticipation of an attended stimulus. Third, we developed a computational model of dynamic attention, which proposes specific mechanisms underlying temporal attention and its selectivity. Lastly, I will mention how we are testing predictions of the model with MEG. Altogether, this research shows how precisely timed voluntary attention helps manage inherent limits in visual processing across short time intervals, advancing our understanding of attention as a dynamic process.
The role of context in the deployment of visual attention
Beyond visual search: studying visual attention with multitarget visual foraging tasks
Visual attention refers to a set of processes allowing selection of relevant and filtering out of irrelevant information in the visual environment. A large amount of research on visual attention has involved visual search paradigms, where observers are asked to report whether a single target is present or absent. However, recent studies have revealed that these classic single-target visual search tasks only provide a snapshot of how attention is allocated in the visual environment, and that multitarget visual foraging tasks may capture the dynamics visual attention more accurately. In visual foraging, observers are asked to select multiple instances of multiple target types, as fast as they can. A critical question in foraging research concerns the factors driving the next target selection. Most likely, this would require two steps: (1) identifying a set of candidates for the next selection, and (2) selecting the best option among these candidates. After having briefly described the advantage of visual foraging over visual search, I will review recent visual foraging studies testing the influence of several manipulations (e.g., target crypticity, number of items, selection modality) on foraging behaviour. Overall, these studies revealed that the next target selection during visual foraging is determined by the competition between three factors: target value, target proximity, and priming of features. I will explain how the analysis of individual differences in foraging behaviour can provide important information, with the idea that individuals show by-default internal biases toward value, proximity and priming that determine their search strategy and behaviour.
How do we find what we are looking for? The Guided Search 6.0 model
The talk will give a tour of Guided Search 6.0 (GS6), the latest evolution of Guided Search. Part 1 describes The Mechanics of Search. Because we cannot recognize more than a few items at a time, selective attention is used to prioritize items for processing. Selective attention to an item allows its features to be bound together into a representation that can be matched to a target template in memory or rejected as a distractor. The binding and recognition of an attended object is modeled as a diffusion process taking > 150 msec/item. Since selection occurs more frequently than that, it follows that multiple items are undergoing recognition at the same time, though asynchronously, making GS6 a hybrid serial and parallel model. If a target is not found, search terminates when an accumulating quitting signal reaches a threshold. Part 2 elaborates on the five sources of Guidance that are combined into a spatial “priority map” to guide the deployment of attention (hence “guided search”). These are (1) top-down and (2) bottom-up feature guidance, (3) prior history (e.g. priming), (4) reward, and (5) scene syntax and semantics. In GS6, the priority map is a dynamic attentional landscape that evolves over the course of search. In part, this is because the visual field is inhomogeneous. Part 3: That inhomogeneity imposes spatial constraints on search that described by three types of “functional visual field” (FVFs): (1) a resolution FVF, (2) an FVF governing exploratory eye movements, and (3) an FVF governing covert deployments of attention. Finally, in Part 4, we will consider that the internal representation of the search target, the “search template” is really two templates: a guiding template and a target template. Put these pieces together and you have GS6.
Infant Relational Learning - Interactions with Visual and Linguistic Factors
Humans are incredible learners, a talent supported by our ability to detect and transfer relational similarities between items and events. Spotting these common relations despite perceptual differences is challenging, yet there’s evidence that this ability begins early, with infants as young as 3 months discriminating same and different (Anderson et al., 2018; Ferry et al., 2015). How? To understand the underlying mechanisms, I examine how learning outcomes in the first year correspond with changes in input and in infant age. I discuss the commonalities in this process with that seen in older children and adults, as well as differences due to interactions with other maturing processes like language and visual attention.
The developing visual brain – answers and questions
We will start our talk with a short video of our research, illustrating methods (some old and new) and findings that have provided our current understanding of how visual capabilities develop in infancy and early childhood. However, our research poses some outstanding questions. We will briefly discuss three issues, which are linked by a common focus on the development of visual attentional processing: (1) How do recurrent cortical loops contribute to development? Cortical selectivity (e.g., to orientation, motion, and binocular disparity) develops in the early months of life. However, these systems are not purely feedforward but depend on parallel pathways, with recurrent feedback loops playing a critical role. The development of diverse networks, particularly for motion processing, may explain changes in dynamic responses and resolve developmental data obtained with different methodologies. One possible role for these loops is in top-down attentional control of visual processing. (2) Why do hyperopic infants become strabismic (cross-eyes)? Binocular interaction is a particularly sensitive area of development. Standard clinical accounts suppose that long-sighted (hyperopic) refractive errors require accommodative effort, putting stress on the accommodation-convergence link that leads to its breakdown and strabismus. Our large-scale population screening studies of 9-month infants question this: hyperopic infants are at higher risk of strabismus and impaired vision (amblyopia and impaired attention) but these hyperopic infants often under- rather than over-accommodate. This poor accommodation may reflect poor early attention processing, possibly a ‘soft sign’ of subtle cerebral dysfunction. (3) What do many neurodevelopmental disorders have in common? Despite similar cognitive demands, global motion perception is much more impaired than global static form across diverse neurodevelopmental disorders including Down and Williams Syndromes, Fragile-X, Autism, children with premature birth and infants with perinatal brain injury. These deficits in motion processing are associated with deficits in other dorsal stream functions such as visuo-motor co-ordination and attentional control, a cluster we have called ‘dorsal stream vulnerability’. However, our neuroimaging measures related to motion coherence in typically developing children suggest that the critical areas for individual differences in global motion sensitivity are not early motion-processing areas such as V5/MT, but downstream parietal and frontal areas for decision processes on motion signals. Although these brain networks may also underlie attentional and visuo-motor deficits , we still do not know when and how these deficits differ across different disorders and between individual children. Answering these questions provide necessary steps, not only increasing our scientific understanding of human visual brain development, but also in designing appropriate interventions to help each child achieve their full potential.
A Rare Visuospatial Disorder
Cases with visuospatial abnormalities provide opportunities for understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Three cases of visual mirror-reversal have been reported: AH (McCloskey, 2009), TM (McCloskey, Valtonen, & Sherman, 2006) and PR (Pflugshaupt et al., 2007). This research reports a fourth case, BS -- with focal occipital cortical dysgenesis -- who displays highly unusual visuospatial abnormalities. They initially produced mirror reversal errors similar to those of AH, who -- like the patient in question -- showed a selective developmental deficit. Extensive examination of BS revealed phenomena such as: mirror reversal errors (sometimes affecting only parts of the visual fields) in both horizontal and vertical planes; subjective representation of visual objects and words in distinct left and right visual fields; subjective duplication of objects of visual attention (not due to diplopia); uncertainty regarding the canonical upright orientation of everyday objects; mirror reversals during saccadic eye movements on oculomotor tasks; and failure to integrate visual with other sensory inputs (e.g., they feel themself moving backwards when visual information shows they are moving forward). Fewer errors are produced under conditions of certain visual variables. These and other findings have led the researchers to conclude that BS draws upon a subjective representation of visual space that is structured phenomenally much as it is anatomically in early visual cortex (i.e., rotated through 180 degrees, split into left and right fields, etc.). Despite this, BS functions remarkably well in their everyday life, apparently due to extensive compensatory mechanisms deployed at higher (executive) processing levels beyond the visual modality.
A new computational framework for understanding vision in our brain
Visual attention selects only a tiny fraction of visual input information for further processing. Selection starts in the primary visual cortex (V1), which creates a bottom-up saliency map to guide the fovea to selected visual locations via gaze shifts. This motivates a new framework that views vision as consisting of encoding, selection, and decoding stages, placing selection on center stage. It suggests a massive loss of non-selected information from V1 downstream along the visual pathway. Hence, feedback from downstream visual cortical areas to V1 for better decoding (recognition), through analysis-by- synthesis, should query for additional information and be mainly directed at the foveal region. Accordingly, non-foveal vision is not only poorer in spatial resolution, but also more susceptible to many illusions.
A paradoxical kind of sleep In Drosophila melanogaster
The dynamic nature of sleep in most animals suggests distinct stages which serve different functions. Genetic sleep induction methods in animal models provide a powerful way to disambiguate these stages and functions, although behavioural methods alone are insufficient to accurately identify what kind of sleep is being engaged. In Drosophila, activation of the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) promotes sleep, but it remains unclear what kind of sleep this is, how the rest of the fly brain is behaving, or if any specific sleep functions are being achieved. Here, we developed a method to record calcium activity from thousands of neurons across a volume of the fly brain during dFB-induced sleep, and we compared this to the effects of a sleep-promoting drug. We found that drug-induced spontaneous sleep decreased brain activity and connectivity, whereas dFB sleep was not different from wakefulness. Paradoxically, dFB-induced sleep was found to be even deeper than drug- induced sleep. When we probed the sleeping fly brain with salient visual stimuli, we found that the activity of visually-responsive neurons was blocked by dFB activation, confirming a disconnect from the external environment. Prolonged optogenetic dFB activation nevertheless achieved a significant sleep function, by correcting visual attention defects brought on by sleep deprivation. These results suggest that dFB activation promotes a distinct form of sleep in Drosophila, where brain activity and connectivity remain similar to wakefulness, but responsiveness to external sensory stimuli is profoundly suppressed.
“Attentional fingerprints” in conceptual space: Reliable, individuating patterns of visual attention revealed using natural language modeling
COSYNE 2023
Serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe regulate visual attention
COSYNE 2025
Neural dynamics during a visual attention and perception task in the superior colliculus
FENS Forum 2024
A shared neural mechanism underlying deficits in selective visual attention across mild cognitive impairment subtypes
FENS Forum 2024
Do social stimuli rule overt visual attention priorities? An eye-tracking study
FENS Forum 2024
Visual attention modulates simple-complex neuronal pairs' interactions in V1
FENS Forum 2024
Salience by Competitive and Recurrent Interactions: Bridging Neural Spiking and Computation in Visual Attention
Neuromatch 5