Cargando…

Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation

In our natural environment, the brain needs to combine signals from multiple sensory modalities into a coherent percept. Whereas spatial attention guides perceptual decisions by prioritizing processing of signals that are task-relevant, spatial expectations encode the probability of signals over spa...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zuanazzi, Arianna, Noppeney, Uta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32744617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.8.1
_version_ 1783572833020936192
author Zuanazzi, Arianna
Noppeney, Uta
author_facet Zuanazzi, Arianna
Noppeney, Uta
author_sort Zuanazzi, Arianna
collection PubMed
description In our natural environment, the brain needs to combine signals from multiple sensory modalities into a coherent percept. Whereas spatial attention guides perceptual decisions by prioritizing processing of signals that are task-relevant, spatial expectations encode the probability of signals over space. Previous studies have shown that behavioral effects of spatial attention generalize across sensory modalities. However, because they manipulated spatial attention as signal probability over space, these studies could not dissociate attention and expectation or assess their interaction. In two experiments, we orthogonally manipulated spatial attention (i.e., task-relevance) and expectation (i.e., signal probability) selectively in one sensory modality (i.e., primary modality) (experiment 1: audition, experiment 2: vision) and assessed their effects on primary and secondary sensory modalities in which attention and expectation were held constant. Our results show behavioral effects of spatial attention that are comparable for audition and vision as primary modalities; however, signal probabilities were learned more slowly in audition, so that spatial expectations were formed later in audition than vision. Critically, when these differences in learning between audition and vision were accounted for, both spatial attention and expectation affected responses more strongly in the primary modality in which they were manipulated and generalized to the secondary modality only in an attenuated fashion. Collectively, our results suggest that both spatial attention and expectation rely on modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7438668
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-74386682020-08-28 Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation Zuanazzi, Arianna Noppeney, Uta J Vis Article In our natural environment, the brain needs to combine signals from multiple sensory modalities into a coherent percept. Whereas spatial attention guides perceptual decisions by prioritizing processing of signals that are task-relevant, spatial expectations encode the probability of signals over space. Previous studies have shown that behavioral effects of spatial attention generalize across sensory modalities. However, because they manipulated spatial attention as signal probability over space, these studies could not dissociate attention and expectation or assess their interaction. In two experiments, we orthogonally manipulated spatial attention (i.e., task-relevance) and expectation (i.e., signal probability) selectively in one sensory modality (i.e., primary modality) (experiment 1: audition, experiment 2: vision) and assessed their effects on primary and secondary sensory modalities in which attention and expectation were held constant. Our results show behavioral effects of spatial attention that are comparable for audition and vision as primary modalities; however, signal probabilities were learned more slowly in audition, so that spatial expectations were formed later in audition than vision. Critically, when these differences in learning between audition and vision were accounted for, both spatial attention and expectation affected responses more strongly in the primary modality in which they were manipulated and generalized to the secondary modality only in an attenuated fashion. Collectively, our results suggest that both spatial attention and expectation rely on modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms. The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2020-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7438668/ /pubmed/32744617 http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.8.1 Text en Copyright 2020 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
spellingShingle Article
Zuanazzi, Arianna
Noppeney, Uta
Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title_full Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title_fullStr Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title_full_unstemmed Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title_short Modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
title_sort modality-specific and multisensory mechanisms of spatial attention and expectation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32744617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.8.1
work_keys_str_mv AT zuanazziarianna modalityspecificandmultisensorymechanismsofspatialattentionandexpectation
AT noppeneyuta modalityspecificandmultisensorymechanismsofspatialattentionandexpectation