Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Modulation of Brain Activities by Hierarchical Processing: A High-Density ERP Study

  • Published:
Brain Topography Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The present study investigated how attention to global or local levels of hierarchical patterns modulates brain activities by recording high-density event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evoked by hierarchical stimuli. 120-channel recordings of ERPs were obtained from subjects while they detected targets at global or local levels of hierarchical stimuli displayed in the left or the right visual field. We found that attention to local stimulus features enhanced posterior PI and N2 components, with the N2 enhancement showing a left hemisphere predominance regardless of stimulus positions. Difference was also seen in the distribution of the frontal P2. Reaction times were slowed when global and local levels of stimuli were incompatible, and an interference effect was observed on anterior N2 amplitudes and latencies. Three-dimensional current distributions showed common sources over the posterior cortex between 80-230 ms and a contralateral frontal source between 300-400 ms for global and local conditions. However, an additional ipsilateral frontal focus between 230-350 ms was found specially for local processing. The results corroborate the findings of previous ERP studies, and suggest that the frontal lobe is particularly important for the selective processing of local parts of a global structure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anllo-Vento L. and Hillyard, S.A. Selective attention to the color and direction of moving stimulli: Electrophysiological correlates of hierarchical feature selection. Perception and Psychophysics, 1996, 58: 191–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Badcock, J.C., Whitworth, F.A., Badcock, D.R. and Lovegrove, W.J. Low-frequency filtering and the processing of local-global stimuli. Perception, 1990, 19: 617–629.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delis, D., Robertson, L.C. and Efron, R. Hemispheric specialization of memory for visual hierarchical stimuli. Neuropsychologia, 1986, 24: 205–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donchin, E. Event-related brain potentials: A tool in the study of human information processing. In: H. Begleiter (Ed.), Evoked brain potentials and behavior. New York: Plenum, 1977: 13–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan-Johnson, C.C. and Kopell, B.S. The stroop effect: Brain potentials localize the source of interference. Science, 1981, 214: 938–940.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M. An event-related potential (ERP) study of transient and sustained visual attention to color and form. Biological Psychology, 1997, 44: 143–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fink, G.R., Halligan, P.W., Marshall, J.C., Frith, C.D., Frackowiak, R.S.J. and Dolan, R.J. Where in the brain does visual attention select the forest and the trees? Nature, 1996, 382: 626–628.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, C.M., Knig, P., Engel, A.K. and Singer, W. Oscillator responses in cat visual cortex exhibit inter-columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus patterns. Nature, 1989, 338: 334–337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenblatt, R.E. Combined EEG/MEG source estimation in biomagnetism: Fundamental research and clinical applications. In: C. Baumgartner, L. Deeke, G. Stroink, and S.J. Williamson (Eds), Biomagnetism: Fundamental Research and Clinical Applications. Elsevier/IOS Press, Amsterdam, 1995: 402–405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grice, G.R., Canham, L. and Boroughs, J.M. Forest before trees? It depends where you look. Perception and Psychophysics, 1983, 33: 121–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, M.E. and Segraves, M.A. The visual and frontal cortices. In: R.H. Wurtz and M.E. Goldberg (Eds.), The neurobiology of saccadic eye movements. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers BV, 1989: 283–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez, G.C.M., Clark, V.P., Fan, S., Luck, S.J. and Hillyard, S.A. Sources of attention-sensitive visual event-related potentials. Brain Topography, 1994, 7: 41–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, S. and Chen, L. A topological approach to global precedence, Investigative ophthalmology and visual science, (suppl.), 1994, 35: 1625.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, S., Fan, S., Chen, L. and Zhuo, Y. On the different processing of wholes and parts: A psychophysiological study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1997, 9: 686–697.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, S., Humphreys, G.W. and Chen, L. Parallel and competitive processes in hierarchical analysis: Perceptual grouping and encoding of closure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (in press).

  • Han, S. and Humphreys, G.W. Interactions between perceptual organization based on Gestalt laws and those based on hierarchical processing. Perception & Psychophysics (in press).

  • Harter, M.E., Aine, C. and Schroeder, C. Hemispheric differences in the neural processing of stimulus location and type: Effects of selection on visual evoked potentials. Neuropsychologia, 1982, 20: 421–438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinze, H.J. and Münte, T.F. Electrophysiological correlates of hierarchical stimulus processing: Dissociation between onset and later stages of global and local target processing. Neuropsychologia, 1993, 31: 841–852.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinze, H. J., Münte, T.F. and Mangun, G.R. The order of global-and local-level information processing: Electrophysiological evidence for parallel perceptual processes. In: H. Heinze, T. Muente and G.R. Mangun (Eds). Cognitive Electrophysiology, Birkhaeuser Boston, 1994: 1–25.

  • Heinze, H.J., Mangun, G.R., Burchert. W., Hinrichs, H., Scholz, M., Münte, T. F., Gös, A., Johannes, S., Scherg, M., Hundeshagen, H., Gazzaniga, M.S. and Hillyard, S.A. Combined spatial and temporal imaging of spatial selective attention in humans. Nature, 1994, 392: 543–546.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henik, A., Rafal, R. and Rhodes, D. Endogenously generated and visual guided saccades after lesions of the human frontal eye fields. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1994, 6: 400–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillyard, S.A., Hinrichs, H., Tempelmann, C., Morgan, S.T., Hansen, J.C., Scheich, H. and Heinze, H. Combining steady-state visual evoked potentials and fMRI to localize brain activity during selective attention. Human Brain Mapping, 1997, 5: 287–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, H.C., Fendrich, R. and Reuter-Lorenz, P.A. Global versus local processing in the absence of low spatial frequencies. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1990, 2: 272–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johannes, S., Wieringa, B.M., Matzke, M. and Münte, T.F. Hierarchical visual stimuli: electrophysiological evidence for separate left hemispheric global and local processing mechanisms in humans. Neuroscience Letter, 1996, 210: 111–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenemans, J.L., Kok, A. and Smulders, F.T. Event-related potentials to conjunctions of spatial frequency and orientation as a function of stimulus parameters and response requirements. Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology, 1993, 88: 51–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinchla, R.A. and Wolfe, J.M. The order of visual processing: “Top-down,” “bottom-up,” or “middle-out”. Perception and Psychophysics, 1979, 25: 225–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, S-G., Richter, W. and Ugurbil, K. Limitations of temporal resolution in functional MRI. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 1997, 37: 631–636.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotchoubey, B., Wascher, E. and Verleger, R. Shifting attention between global features and small details: an event-related potential study. Biological Psychology, 1997, 46: 25–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kwong, K.K. Functional magnetic resonance imaging with echo planar imaging. Magnetic Resonance Quarterly, 1995, 11: 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lagasse, L.L. Effects of good form and spatial frequency on global precedence. Perception and Psychophysics, 1993, 53: 89–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lantz, G., Michel, R.D., Pascual-Marqui, R.D., Spinelli, L., Seeck, M., Seri, S., Landis, T. and Rosen, I. Extracranial localization of intracranial interictal epileptiform activity using LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography). Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1997, 102: 414–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R. and Robertson, L.C. The processing of hierarchical stimuli: effects of retinal locus, locational uncertainty, and stimulus identity. Perception and Psychophysics, 1988, 44: 172–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R. and Robertson, L.C. Do response time advantage and interference reflect the order of processing of global-and local-level information? Perception and Psychophysics, 1989, 46: 254–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R., Robertson, L.C. and Knight, R.T. Attention and interference in the processing of global and local information: Effects of unilateral temporal-parietal junction lesions. Neuropsychologia, 1989, 27: 471–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R., Robertson, L.C. and Knight, R.T. Component mechanisms underlying the processing of hierarchically organized patterns: inferences from patients with unilateral cortical lesions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1990, 16: 471–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R. and Yund, E.W. The role of spatial frequency in the processing hierarchically organized stimuli. Perception and Psychophysics, 1993, 47: 489–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M.R. and Yund, E.W. Spatial frequency and attention: Effect of level-, target-, and location-repetition on the processing of global and local forms. Perception and Psychophysics, 1996, 58: 363–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, M. Hemispheric specialization for local and global processing. Neuropsycholigia, 1979, 17: 33–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, J.G., Gutierrz, C. and Harsin, C.A. The time-course of global and consistency effects. International Journal of Neuroscience, 1995, 80: 237–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangun, G.R., Hillyard, S.A. and Luck, S.J. Electrocortical substrates of visual selective attention. In: D.E. Meyer and S. Kornblum (Eds), Attention and performance XIV: Synergies in experimental psychology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive neuroscience, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993: 219–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Navon, D. Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 1977, 9: 353–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui, R.D., Michel, C.M. and Lehmann, D. Low resolution electromagnetic tomography: A new method for localizing electrical activity in the brain. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 1994, 18: 49–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui, R.D. and Michel, C.M. LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography): New authentic 3D functional images of the brain. In: W. Skrandies (Ed.), Source Localisation: Discussing the Inverse Problem. ISBET newslett, Nov. 1994: 4–8.

  • Posner, M.I., Petersen, S.E., Fox, P.T. and Raichle, M.E. Localization of cognitive operations in the human brain, Science, 1988, 240: 1627–1631.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M.I. and Dehaene, S. Attentional networks. Trends in Neurosciences, 1994, 17: 75–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pomerantz, J.R. Global and local precedence: Selective attention in form and motion perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1983, 112: 512–540.

    Google Scholar 

  • Previc, F.H. and Harter, M.F. Eletrophysiological and behavioral indicants of selective attention to multifeature gratings. Perception and Psychophysics, 1982, 32: 465–472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proverbio, A.M., Minniti, A. and Zani, A. Electrophysiological evidence of a perceptual precedence of global vs. local visual information. Cognitive Brain Research, 1998, 6: 321–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rafal, R. and Robertson, L.C. The neurology of visual attention. In: M. Gazzaniga (Ed), The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995: 625–648.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridderinkhof, K.R. and van der Molen, M.W. When global information and local information collide: a brain potential analysis of the locus of interference effects. Biological Psychology, 1995, 41: 29–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, L.C., Lamb, M.R. and Knight, R.T. Effects of lesions of temporal-parietal junction on perceptual and attentional processing in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 1988, 8: 3757–3769.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, L.C. and Lamb, M.R. Neuropsychological contributions to theories of part/whole organization. Cognitive Psychology, 1991, 23: 299–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, L.C., Lamb, M.R. and Knight, R.T. Normal global-local analysis patients with dorsolateral frontal lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia, 1991, 29: 959–967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, L.C., Lamb, M.R. and Zaidel, E. Callosal transfer and hemisphere laterality in response to hierarchical patterns: Evidence from normal and commissurotomized subjects. Neuropsychology, 1993, 7: 325–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rush, S. and Driscoll, D.A. Current distribution in the brain from surface electrodes. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 1986, 47: 717–723.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergent, J. The cerebral balance of power: confrontation or cooperation? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1982, 8: 253–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva, L.R., Amitai, Y. and Connors, B.W. Intrinsic oscillations of neocortex generated by layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Science, 1991, 251: 432–435.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wijers, A.A., Mulder, G., Okita, T., Mulder, L.J. and Scheffers, M.K. Attention to color: An analysis of selection, controlled search, and motor activation, using event-related potentials. Psychophysiology, 1989, 26: 89–109.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Lab of Cognitive Science, University of Science and Technology of China, China

    Shihui Han, Silu Fan, Lin Chen & Yan Zhuo

  2. Graduate School (Beijing), University of Science and Technology of China, China

    Shihui Han

Authors
  1. Shihui Han
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Silu Fan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lin Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yan Zhuo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Han, S., Fan, S., Chen, L. et al. Modulation of Brain Activities by Hierarchical Processing: A High-Density ERP Study. Brain Topogr 11, 171–183 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022244727182

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022244727182

Search

Navigation