This article reviews the literature on the nature and properties of the negative deviation of the N2pc event-related potentials. As a rule, this lateralized component occurs 180–300 msec after the onset of visual stimulus presentation and is calculated as the difference between the cerebral responses recorded in the contralateral parietal-occipital electrodes of both hemispheres. N2pc is currently regarded as a reliable indicator of the involvement of the brain’s cognitive resources in the process of identification of the location of a target. It was initially suggested that N2pc reflects the process suppressing the influences of irrelevant stimuli during perception, but other points of view on its functional role have subsequently arisen, as data on its relationship not only with the processes ensuring filtering out of distractors but also with processing of target stimuli themselves. In addition, the features of the occurrence of this component provide for studies of the mechanisms of the deployment of attention in humans and animals. N2pc has also found applications in the study of attention in people with various mental and physical disorders.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akyurek, E. G. and Meijerink, S. K., “The deployment of visual attention during temporal integration: An electrophysiological investigation,” Psychophysiology, 49, No. 7, 885–898 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01380.x.
Ansorge, U., Kiss, M., Worschech, F., and Eimer, M., “The initial stage of visual selection is controlled by top-down task set: new ERP evidence,” Percept. Psychophys., 73, No. 1, 113–122 (2011), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-010-0008-3.
Astle, D. E., Scerif, G., Kuo, B.-C., and Nobre, A. C., “Spatial selection of features within perceived and remembered objects,” Front. Hum. Neurosci., 3, 6 (2009), https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.09.006.2009.
Bachman, M. D., Wang, L., Gamble, M. L., and Woldorff, M. G., “Physical salience and value-driven salience operate through different neural mechanisms to enhance attentional selection,” J. Neurosci., 40, No. 28, 5455–5464 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1198-19.
Barras, C. and Kerzel, D., “Nogo stimuli do not receive more attentional suppression or response inhibition than neutral stimuli: evidence from the N2pc, PD, and N2 components in a spatial cueing paradigm,” Front. Psychol., 7, 630 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00630.
Beaumont, L. D., Brisson, B., Lassonde, M., and Jolicoeur, P., “Long-term electrophysiological changes in athletes with a history of multiple concussions,” Brain Inj., 21, No. 6, 631–644 (2007), https://doi.org/10.1080/02699050701426931.
Bichot, N. P., Heard, M. T., DeGennaro, E. M., and Desimone, R., “A source for feature-based attention in the prefrontal cortex,” Neuron, 88, No. 4, 832–844 (2015), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.10.001.
Bichot, N. P., Xu, R., Ghadooshahy, A., et al., “The role of prefrontal cortex in the control of feature attention in area V4,” Nat. Commun., 10, No. 1, 5727 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13761-7.
Bisley, J. W. and Mirpour, K., “The neural instantiation of a priority map,” Curr. Opin. Psychol., 29, 108–112 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.01.002.
Boehler, C. N., Tsotsos, J. K., Schoenfeld, M. A., et al., “Neural mechanisms of surround attenuation and distractor competition in visual search,” J. Neurosci., 31, No. 14, 5213–5224 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6406-10.2011.
Bola, M., Paź, M., Doradzińska, Ł., and Nowicka, A., “The self-face captures attention without consciousness: Evidence from the N2pc ERP component analysis,” Psychophysiology, 58, No. 4, 13759 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13759.
Brisson, B. and Jolicoeur, P., “The N2pc component and stimulus duration,” NeuroReport, 18, No. 11, 1163–1166 (2007), https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0b013e3281e72d1b.
Brisson, B., Robitaille, N., and Jolicoeur, P., “Stimulus intensity affects the latency but not the amplitude of the N2pc,” Neuroreport, 18, No. 15, 1627–1630 (2007).
Buodo, G., Sarlo, M., and Munafo, M., “The neural correlates of attentional bias in blood phobia as revealed by the N2pc,” Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci., 5, No. 1, 29–38 (2010), https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsp050.
Burra, N., and Kerzel, D., “Attentional capture during visual search is attenuated by target predictability: Evidence from the N2pc, Pd, and topographic segmentation,” Psychophysiology, 50, No. 5, 422–430 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12019.
Burra, N., Barras, C., Coll, S. Y., and Kerzel, D., “Electrophysiological evidence for attentional capture by irrelevant angry facial expressions,” Biol. Psychol., 120, 69–80 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2016.08.008.
Buschman, T. J. and Miller, E. K., “Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices,” Science, 315, No. 5820, 1860–1862 (2007), https://www.science.org/doi/abs/https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138071.
Cohen, J. Y., Heitz, R. P., Schall, J. D., and Woodman, G. F., “On the origin of event-related potentials indexing covert attentional selection during visual search,” J. Neurophysiol., 102, No. 4, 2375–2386 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00680.2009.
Couperus, J. W., Lydic, K. O., Hollis, J. E., et al., “Individual differences in working memory and the N2pc,” Front. Hum. Neurosci., 15, 109 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.620413.
Eimer, M. and Kiss, M., “Involuntary attentional capture is determined by task set: evidence from event-related brain potentials,” J. Cogn. Neurosci., 20, No. 8, 1423–1433 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20099.
Eimer, M. and Mazza, V., “Electrophysiological correlates of change detection,” Psychophysiology, 42, No. 3, 328–342 (2005), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00285.x.
Eimer, M., “The N2pc component as an indicator of attentional selectivity,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol., 99, No. 3, 225–234 (1996), https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-4694(96)95711-9.
Gaspelin, N. and Luck, S. J., “Inhibition as a potential resolution to the attentional capture debate,” Curr. Opin. Psychol., 29, 12–18 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.10.013.
Girelli, M. and Luck, S. J., “Are the same attentional mechanisms used to detect visual search targets defined by color, orientation, and motion?” J. Cogn. Neurosci., 9, No. 2, 238–253 (1997), https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.1997.9.2.238.
Gregoriou, G. G., Gotts, S. J., and Desimone, R., “Cell-type-specific synchronization of neural activity in FEF with V4 during attention,” Neuron, 73, No. 3, 581–594 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.019.
Grubert, A. and Eimer, M., “The speed of serial attention shifts in visual search: evidence from the N2pc component,” J. Cogn. Neurosci., 28, No. 2, 319–332 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00898.
Heuer, A. and Schubö, A., “The focus of attention in visual working memory: protection of focused representations and its individual variation,” PLoS One, 11, No. 4, e0154228 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154228.
Hickey, C., Di Lollo, V., and McDonald, J. J., “Electrophysiological indices of target and distractor processing in visual search,” J. Cogn. Neurosci., 21, No. 4, 760–775 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21039.
Hilimire, M. R. and Corballis, P. M., “Event-related potentials reveal the effect of prior knowledge on competition for representation and attentional capture,” Psychophysiology, 51, No. 1, 22–35 (2014), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12154.
Hilimire, M. R., Mounts, J. R. W., Parks, N. A., and Corballis, P. M., “Competitive interaction degrades target selection: An ERP study,” Psychophysiology, 46, No. 5, 1080–1089 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00846.x.
Hopf, J.-M., Boelmans, K., Schoenfeld, A. M., et al., “How does attention attenuate target-distractor interference in vision? Evidence from magnetoencephalographic recordings,” Cogn. Brain Res., 15, No. 1, 17–29 (2002), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(02)00213-6.
Hopf, J.-M., Luck, S. J., Boelmans, K., et al., “The neural site of attention matches the spatial scale of perception,” J. Neurosci., 26, No. 13, 3532–3540 (2006), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4510-05.2006.
Hopf, J.-M., Luck, S. J., Girelli, M., et al., “Neural sources of focused attention in visual search,” Cereb. Cortex, 10, No. 12, 1233–1241 (2000), https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/10.12.1233.
Hyun, J., Woodman, G. F., and Luck, S. J., “The role of attention in the binding of surface features to locations,” Vis. Cogn., 17 (1–2), 10–24 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1080/13506280802113894.
Ikeda, K., Sugiura, A., and Hasegawa, T., “Fearful faces grab attention in the absence of late affective cortical responses,” Psychophysiology, 50, No. 1, 60–69 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01478.x.
Kim, M., Taylor, M., and Hoffman, J., “Emotional pictures automatically capture attention,” J. Vis., 17, No. 10, 1292 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1167/17.10.1292.
Kiss, M., Driver, J., and Eimer, M., “Reward priority of visual target singletons modulates event-related potential signatures of attentional selection,” Psychol. Sci., 20, No. 2, 245–251 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02281.x.
Kiss, M., Van Velzen, J., and Eimer, M., “The N2pc component and its links to attention shifts and spatially selective visual processing,” Psychophysiology, 45, No. 2, 240–249 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00611.x.
Krusemark, E. A., Kiehl, K. A., and Newman, J. P., “Endogenous attention modulates early selective attention in psychopathy: An ERP investigation,” Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci., 16, No. 5, 779–788 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0430-7.
Krzan, F., “Attentional guidance by the contents of working memory and the N2pc component,” J. Neurobehav. Sci., 2, No. 1, 21 (2015), https://doi.org/10.5455/JNBS.1429716677.
Kumar, S., Soto, D., and Humphreys, G. W., “Electrophysiological evidence for attentional guidance by the contents of working memory,” Eur. J. Neurosci., 30, No. 2, 307–317 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06805.x.
Li, H., Zeigler-Hill, V., Yang, J., et al., “Low self-esteem and the neural basis of attentional bias for social rejection cues: Evidence from the N2pc ERP component,” Personal. Individ. Differ., 53, No. 8, 947–951 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.03.004.
Lien, M.-C., Croswaite, K., and Ruthruff, E., “Controlling spatial attention without central attentional resources: Evidence from event-related potentials,” Vis. Cogn., 19, No. 1, 37–78 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2010.491643.
Liu, X., Hildebrandt, A., Recio, G., et al., “Individual differences in the speed of facial emotion recognition show little specifi city but are strongly related with general mental speed: psychometric, neural and genetic Evidence,” Front. Behav. Neurosci., 11, 149 (2017), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00149.
Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Gozli, D. G., et al., “Current status of the anger superiority hypothesis: A metaanalytic review of N2pc studies,” Psychophysiology, 58, No. 1, e13700 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13700.
Lorenzo-López L., Amenedo, E., and Cadaveira, F., “Feature processing during visual search in normal aging: Electrophysiological evidence,” Neurobiol. Aging, 29, No. 7, 1101–1110 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2007.02.007.
Lorenzo-López, L., Gutierrez, R., Moratti, S., et al., “Age-related occipito-temporal hypoactivation during visual search: Relationships between mN2pc sources and performance,” Neuropsychologia, 49, No. 5, 858–865 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.01.015.
Luck, S. J. and Hillyard, S. A., “Electrophysiological evidence for parallel and serial processing during visual search,” Percept. Psychophys., 48, No. 6, 603–617 (1990), https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03211606.
Luck, S. J. and Hillyard, S. A., “Spatial fi ltering during visual search: evidence from human electrophysiology,” J. Experim. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform., 20, No. 5, 1000–1014 (1994).
Luck, S. J. and Kappenman, E. S., “ERP components and selective attention,” in: The Oxford Handbook of Event-Related Potential Components, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, US (2012), pp. 295–327.
Luck, S. J., “Electrophysiological correlates of the focusing of attention within complex visual scenes: N2pc and related ERP components,” in: The Oxford Handbook of Event-Related Potential Components, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, US (2012), pp. 329–360.
Luck, S. J., “The operation of attention – millisecond by millisecond – over the first half second,” in: The First Half Second: The Microgenesis and Temporal Dynamics of Unconscious and Conscious Visual Processes, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, US (2006), pp. 187–206.
Luck, S. J., and Hillyard, S. A., “Electrophysiological correlates of feature analysis during visual search,” Psychophysiology, 31, No. 3, 291–308 (1994).
Luck, S. J., Fuller, R. L., Braun, E. L., et al., “The speed of visual attention in schizophrenia: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence,” Schizophr. Res., 85, No. 1, 174–195 (2006), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2006.03.040.
Luck, S. J., Gaspelin, N., Folk, C. L., et al., “Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate,” Vis. Cogn., 29, No. 1, 1–21 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2020.1848949.
Luck, S. J., Girelli, M., McDermott, M. T., and Ford, M. A., “Bridging the gap between monkey neurophysiology and human perception: an ambiguity resolution theory of visual selective attention,” Cogn. Psychol., 33, No. 1, 64–87 (1997), https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1997.0660.
Mazza, V., Turatto, M., and Caramazza, A., “An electrophysiological assessment of distractor suppression in visual search tasks,” Psychophysiology, 46, No. 4, 771–775 (2009b), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00814.x.
Mazza, V., Turatto, M., and Caramazza, A., “Attention selection, distractor suppression and N2pc,” Cortex, 45, No. 7, 879–890 (2009a), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2008.10.009.
Milner, D. and Goodale, M., The Visual Brain in Action, OUP Oxford, Oxford (2006).
Moon, A., He, C., Ditta, A. S., et al., “Rapid category selectivity for animals versus man-made objects: An N2pc study,” Internat. J. Psychophysiol., 171, 20–28 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.11.004.
Nako, R., Wu, R., Smith, T. J., and Eimer, M., “Item and category-based attentional control during search for real-world objects: Can you find the pants among the pans?” J. Experim. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform., 40, No. 4, 1283–1288 (2014), https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036885.
Ninomiya, T., Sawamura, H., Inoue, K., and Takada, M., “Segregated pathways carrying frontally derived top-down signals to visual areas MT and V4 in macaques,” J. Neurosci., 32, No. 20, 6851–6858 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6295-11.2012.
Papaioannou, O. and Luck, S. J., “Effects of eccentricity on the attention-related N2pc component of the event-related potential waveform,” Psychophysiology, 57, No. 5, e13532 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13532.
Pazo-Alvarez, P., Cadaveira, F., and Amenedo, E., “MMN in the visual modality: a review,” Biol. Psychol., 63, No. 3, 199–236 (2003), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-0511(03)00049-8.
Ponomarev, and V. A., Latent Sources of Electroencephalogram and Event-Related Potentials and their Signifi cance: Dissertation for Degree of Doctor of Sciences, St. Petersburg (2016).
Popov, T., Kastner, S., and Jensen, O., “FEF-controlled alpha delay activity precedes stimulus-induced gamma-band activity in visual cortex,” J. Neurosci., 37, No. 15, 4117–4127 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3015-16.2017.
Praamstra, P. and Plat, F. M., “Failed suppression of direct visuomotor activation in Parkinson’s disease,” J. Cogn. Neurosci., 13, No. 1, 31–43 (2001), https://doi.org/10.1162/089892901564153.
Purcell, B. A., Schall, J. D., and Woodman, G. F., “On the origin of event-related potentials indexing covert attentional selection during visual search: timing of selection by macaque frontal eye field and event-related potentials during pop-out search,” J. Neurophysiol., 109, No. 2, 557–569 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00549.2012.
Reutter, M., Hewig, J., Wieser, M. J., and Osinsky, R., “The N2pc component reliably captures attentional bias in social anxiety,” Psychophysiology, 54, No. 4, 519–527 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12809.
Robitaille, N. and Jolicoeur, P., “Fundamental properties of the N2pc as an index of spatial attention: Effects of masking,” Can. J. Exp. Psychol., 60, No. 2, 101–111 (2006), https://doi.org/10.1037/cjep2006011.
Sato, T., “Effects of attention and stimulus interaction on visual responses of inferior temporal neurons in macaque,” J. Neurophysiol., 60, No. 1, 344–364 (1988), https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.1988.60.1.344.
Sawaki, R. and Luck, S. J., “Capture versus suppression of attention by salient singletons: Electrophysiological evidence for an automatic attend-to-me signal,” Percept. Psychophys., 72, No. 6, 1455–1470 (2010), https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.6.1455.
Schaffer, S., Schubo, A., and Meinecke, C., “Electrophysiological correlates of target eccentricity in texture segmentation,” Internat. J. Psychophysiol., 80, No. 3, 198–209 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.03.003.
Schankin, A. and Wascher, E., “Unvoluntary attentional capture in change blindness,” Psychophysiology, 45, No. 5, 742–750 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00685.x.
Schiff, S., Mapelli, D., Vallesi, A., et al., “Top-down and bottom-up processes in the extrastriate cortex of cirrhotic patients: An ERP study,” Clin. Neurophysiol., 117, No. 8, 1728–1736 (2006), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2006.04.020.
Shedden, J. M. and Nordgaard, C. L., “ERP time course of perceptual and post-perceptual mechanisms of spatial selection,” Cogn. Brain Res., 11, No. 1, 59–75 (2001), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(00)00064-1.
Tay, D., Harms, V., Hillyard, S. A., and McDonald, J. J., “Electrophysiological correlates of visual singleton detection,” Psychophysiology, 56, No. 8, e13375 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13375.
Theeuwes, J., “Top-down and bottom-up control of visual selection,” Acta Psychol., 135, No. 2, 77–99 (2010), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.02.006.
Thompson, K. G., Biscoe, K. L., and Sato, T. R., “Neuronal basis of covert spatial attention in the frontal eye fi eld,” J. Neurosci., 25, No. 41, 9479–9487 (2005), https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0741-05.2005.
Töllner, T., Zehetleitner, M., Gramann, K., and Muller, H. J., “Stimulus saliency modulates pre-attentive processing speed in human visual cortex,” PLoS One, 6, No. 1, e16276 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016276.
Westerberg, J. A. and Schall, J. D., “Neural mechanism of priming in visual search,” Percept. Psychophys., 83, No. 2, 587–602 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02118-8.
Westerberg, J. A., Schall, M. S., Maier, A., et al., “Laminar microcircuitry of visual cortex producing attention-associated electric fields,” eLife, 11, e72139 (2022), https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72139.
Weymar, M., Gerdes, A. B. M., Low, A., et al., “Specific fear modulates attentional selectivity during visual search: electrophysiological insights from the N2pc,” Psychophysiology, 50, No. 2, 139–148 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12008.
Wolber, M. and Wascher, E., “Visual search strategies are indexed by event-related lateralizations of the EEG,” Biol. Psychol., 63, No. 1, 79–100 (2003), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-0511(03)00028-0.
Woodman, G. F. and Luck, S. J., “Electrophysiological measurement of rapid(6747); shifts of attention during visual search,” Nature, 400, 867–869 (1999), https://doi.org/10.1038/23698.
Wu, R., Pruitt, Z., Runkle, M., et al., “A neural signature of rapid category-based target selection as a function of intra-item perceptual similarity, despite inter-item dissimilarity,” Percept. Psychophys., 78, No. 3, 749–760 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-015-1039-6.
Xu, M., Wang, Y., Nakanishi, M., et al., “Fast detection of covert visuospatial attention using hybrid N2pc and SSVEP features,” J. Neural Eng., 13, No. 6, 066003 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2560/13/6/066003.
Young, M. H., Heitz, R., Purcell, B., et al., “Source localization of an event-related potential indexing covert shifts of attention in macaques,” J. Vis., 11, No. 11, 194–194 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1167/11.11.194.
Yuan, J., Zhang, Q., and Cui, L., “Social anxiety and attention to dynamic disgust facial expression: No more attention captured from evidence of N2pc,” Neurosci. Lett., 736, 135269 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135269.
Zhao, G., Liu, Q., Zhang, Y., et al., “The amplitude of N2pc reflects the physical disparity between target item and distracters,” Neurosci. Lett., 491, No. 1, 68–72 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2010.12.066.
Zhou, H. and Desimone, R., “Feature-based attention in the frontal eye field and area V4 during visual search,” Neuron, 70, No. 6, 1205–1217 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.04.032.
Zivony, A., Allon, A. S., Luria, R., and Lamy, D., “Dissociating between the N2pc and attentional shifting: An attentional blink study,” Neuropsychologia, 121, 153–163 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.11.003.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Translated from Sensornye Sistemy, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 109–123, April–June. 2022.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Stoletniy, A.S., Alekseeva, D.S., Babenko, V.V. et al. The N2pc Component in Studies of Visual Attention. Neurosci Behav Physi 52, 1299–1309 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01359-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01359-y