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Automatic spread of attentional response modulation along Gestalt criteria in primary visual cortex

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Abstract

Visual attention can select spatial locations, features and objects. Theories of object-based attention claim that attention enhances the representation of all parts of an object, even parts that are not task relevant. We recorded neuronal activity in area V1 of macaque monkeys and observed an automatic spread of attention to image elements outside of the attentional focus when they were bound to an attended stimulus by Gestalt criteria.

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Figure 1: The effect of collinearity on the spread of attention.
Figure 2: Effects of Gestalt cues on the spread of enhanced activity at the population level.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Poort, B. Dagnino, B. van Vugt and J. Fecteau for additional data collection, and K. Brandsma and D. Vleesenbeek for biotechnical support. This work was supported by NWO-ALW grant 816.02.018 and by an NWO-VICI grant 016.075.608 awarded to P.R.R.

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Author notes

  1. Aurel Wannig and Liviu Stanisor: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Aurel Wannig, Liviu Stanisor & Pieter R Roelfsema

  2. Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Pieter R Roelfsema

Authors
  1. Aurel Wannig
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  2. Liviu Stanisor
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  3. Pieter R Roelfsema
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Contributions

A.W. designed the stimuli, performed recordings, analyzed data and wrote the paper. L.S. designed the stimuli and performed recordings. P.R.R. conceived the project, supervised the data acquisition and analysis, and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pieter R Roelfsema.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–6, Supplementary Results, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Discussion (PDF 671 kb)

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Wannig, A., Stanisor, L. & Roelfsema, P. Automatic spread of attentional response modulation along Gestalt criteria in primary visual cortex. Nat Neurosci 14, 1243–1244 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2910

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