Attentional modulation in visual cortex depends on task timing

ABSTRACT Paying attention to a stimulus selectively increases the ability to process it. For example, when subjects attend to a specific region of a visual scene, their sensitivity to

changes at that location increases. A large number of studies describe the behavioural consequences and neurophysiological correlates of attending to spatial locations1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. There

has, in contrast, been little study of the allocation of attention over time9,10. Because subjects can anticipate predictable events with great temporal precision11,12,13,14,15, it seems

probable that they might dynamically shift their attention when performing a familiar perceptual task whose constraints changed over time. We trained monkeys to respond to a stimulus change

where the probability of occurrence changed over time. Recording from area V4 of the visual cortex in these animals, we found that the modulation of neuronal responses changed according to

the probability of the change occurring at that instant. Thus, we show that the attentional modulation of sensory neurons reflects a subject's anticipation of the timing of

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FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS SINGLE TRIAL NEURONAL ACTIVITY DYNAMICS OF ATTENTIONAL INTENSITY IN MONKEY VISUAL AREA V4 Article Open access 31 March

2021 ANTICIPATORY AND EVOKED VISUAL CORTICAL DYNAMICS OF VOLUNTARY TEMPORAL ATTENTION Article Open access 21 October 2024 TARGETED V1 COMODULATION SUPPORTS TASK-ADAPTIVE SENSORY DECISIONS

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This work was supported by grants from the National Eye Institute and the Human Frontier Science Program. J.H.R.M. is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We thank D.

Murray and T. Williford for assistance with the animals, and W. Bosking, E. Cook, R. A. Eatock, M. Shadlen, D. Sparks, T. Yang and T. Williford for comments on the manuscript. AUTHOR

INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Division of Neuroscience and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA Geoffrey M. Ghose & John H. R.

Maunsell Authors * Geoffrey M. Ghose View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * John H. R. Maunsell View author publications You can also search

for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Geoffrey M. Ghose. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare that they have no competing

financial interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Ghose, G., Maunsell, J. Attentional modulation in visual cortex depends on task

timing. _Nature_ 419, 616–620 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01057 Download citation * Received: 22 April 2002 * Accepted: 05 August 2002 * Issue Date: 10 October 2002 * DOI:

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