Spatial attention

…For this purpose, attention-related mechanisms along the visual pathway have been proposed to allow focusing on the desired object. Beuth and Hamker (2015) [1], using a biologically inspired recurrent model simulating lower and higher layers of the visual cortex, the frontal eye field, and the prefrontal cortex, showed

…states and can serve as a marker for spatial attention. Using simultaneous EEG-MEG recordings in healthy human subjects, we compared

…critical for the deployment of attention. Despite progress emphasizing the importance of patterns of collective activity in cognition, the influence of attention on population dynamics is not clear. Interestingly, neurons in association cortices have been reported to exhibit mixed selectivity, yet its contribution to the population code during attention is poorly understood.To investigate the influence of spatial attention on patterns of population activity, we performed extracellular recordings in the

Spatial attention is the process through which we prioritize processing at specific locations in space, occurring through both the enhancement of behaviorally important locations and the suppression of potentially distracting locations. Despite extensive research demonstrating that goal-directed spatial attention can influence processing in various visual regions, debate persists regarding its timing, particularly its influence on initial afferent activity in early visual cortices. In this study, we aimed to address this question using human electroencephalography. We used the C1 component, wh

In the lateral hypothalamus (LH), distinct cell populations modulate innate behaviors. We investigated the role of neurotensin-expressing (Nts) neurons in the LH in balancing feeding, drinking, and social behavior across internal states.In vivo calcium imaging in freely behaving mice revealed distinct activity patterns of Nts-LH neurons associated with water and food stimuli. After prolonged food restriction, water responses were strongly enhanced, suggesting that Nts-LH neurons are involved in maintaining water intake during hunger pressure. Activation of Nts-LH neurons counteracted hunger pr

Adaptive information processing is crucial for flexible brain function and spatial attention is a quintessential example of this process. It is crucial for recognizing and interacting with behaviorally relevant objects in a cluttered environment. How the deployment of spatial attention aids hierarchical computations of object recognition is unclear. Two key mechanisms have been proposed: First is an improvement in the efficacy of information transfer, supported by an attentional increase in inter-areal correlations along the hierarchy. A second proposal is an improvement in information capacit

Microsaccades are small (<1°) fixational eye movements. Spatial biases in microsaccade direction reflect the focus of covert attentional selection [1]. Yet, whether microsaccades and covert attention are mediated by shared, or distinct, neural mechanisms remains actively debated [2-4]. For example, a recent study suggested that attentional modulations of neural activity in visual area V4 occur only when accompanied by microsaccades [2]. Yet, other studies have shown that behavioral and neural effects of attention occur regardless of microsaccades [3-4]. Here, we present novel evidence that

During perception the visual system integrates current sensory evidence with previously acquired knowledge of the visual world. Presumably this computation relies on internal recurrent interactions. We record populations of neurons from the primary visual cortex of cats and macaque monkeys and find evidence for adaptive internal responses to structured stimulation that change on both slow and fast timescales. In the first experiment, we present abstract images, only briefly, a protocol known to produce strong and persistent recurrent responses in the primary visual cortex. We show that repetit

Animals are remarkably adept at recognizing the categorical significance of stimuli and using this information to guide behavior. Investigations of visual categorization in primates have focused on a hierarchy of cortical areas that transform veridical sensory information into abstract categorical representations. However, categorical behaviors are evident throughout the animal kingdom, including in species without a neocortex, raising a question about the contributions of subcortical regions to primate categorization. One candidate structure is the superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain sensori

The eyes send a continuous stream of about two million nerve fibers to the brain, but only a fraction of this information is stored as visual memories. This talk will detail three neurocomputational models that attempt an understanding how the visual system makes on-the-fly decisions about how to encode that information. First, the STST family of models (Bowman & Wyble 2007; Wyble, Potter, Bowman & Nieuwenstein 2011) proposes mechanisms for temporal segmentation of continuous input. The conclusion of this work is that the visual system has mechanisms for rapidly creating brief episodes of a