Selective visual attention ensures constancy of sensory representations: Testing the influence of perceptual load and spatial competition

Listening to Music and Playing Activities during Recreation between Lessons Regenerate Children's Cognitive Performance at Different Times of Day

The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the time of day (TOD) of playing with or without music during recess on cognitive performance regeneration among students aged between 11 and 12. Twenty-seven volunteer children (aged 12 ± 0.6 years) completed four trials at 09h45, 10h15, 14h45, and 15h15. Each test session was separated by recreation between classroom lessons with different conditions: music only (MSC), playing only (PAY), music and playing (MSC-PAY), and without music and playing (NON). During each session, oral temperature, reaction time (RT), and constant attention (CA) were measured. For all parameters, the ANOVA revealed a significant effect of the type of activity. However, no significant effect of the TOD and no significant interaction of type of activity × TOD were reported. The Bonferroni post hoc test revealed that Δ-core temperature was significantly higher during PAY and MSC-PAY compared to NON (p < 0.05). Δ-attention was higher during MSC, PAY, and MSC-PAY compared to NON (p < 0.001). Δ-attention was lower during MSC (p < 0.05), PAY (p < 0.05), and MSC-PAY (p < 0.01) compared to NON. Therefore, playing, listening to music, and playing while listening to music at recess improve the child’s ability to regenerate cognitive performance regardless of the TOD.

Correlation between Uncorrected Visual Acuity and Macular Distortion in Idiopathic Epiretinal Membrane Patients

Purpose

To evaluate the association between degree of retinal abnormalities and uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) in idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM) patients with a small amount of refractive error.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 49 eyes (37 patients) of idiopathic ERM patients. We investigated the association between visual acuity and macular status (central macular thickness [CMT], outer retinal integrity score, and inner retinal irregularity index) that was assessed by optical coherence tomography using multiple linear regression analysis. We defined visual acuity difference (VAD) as the difference between UCVA and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). We divided patients into two groups according to VAD size and compared clinical characteristics between the two groups. We also investigated factors associated with VAD using multiple linear regression analysis.

Results

BCVA showed significant association with CMT and outer retinal integrity score, while UCVA showed significant association with CMT and inner retinal irregularity index. Patients with a large VAD showed a similar level of BCVA compared to the small VAD group (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR], large VAD group 0.11 ± 0.11 vs. small VAD group 0.13 ± 0.12, p = 0.585). However, UCVA was worse (logMAR, large VAD group 0.44 ± 0.14 vs. small VAD group 0.18 ± 0.14, p < 0.001) and inner retinal irregularity was higher (large VAD group 1.06 ± 0.04 vs. small VAD group 1.04 ± 0.03, p < 0.001) in patients with a large VAD. On multiple linear regression analysis, the absolute value of spherical equivalent (standardized coefficient β 0.521, p < 0.001) and inner retinal irregularity index (standardized coefficient β 0.448, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with VAD.

Conclusions

UCVA was associated with inner retinal irregularity in idiopathic ERM patients with a mild degree of refractive error. Inner retinal irregularity was also associated with degree of VAD, suggesting that the effect of refractive error correction is greater in patients with more distorted retina.

Monkey area MT latencies to speed changes depend on attention and correlate with behavioral reaction times

Selective visual attention is known to be associated with characteristic modulations of neuronal activity in early visual cortex, but there is only rare evidence showing that these neuronal modulations are directly related to attention-dependent behavioral improvements. Here, we describe a strong, transient increase in the response of neurons in the mediotemporal (MT) area to behaviorally relevant speed changes that is not only modulated by attention but also highly correlated with the animal's performance. In trials with fast reaction time (RT), this transient component occurs with short latency, whereas latency increases monotonically with slower RT. Importantly, RTs are related not to the firing rate modulation during sustained attentive tracking of the target prior to the speed change but to the variability of the neuronal response. Our findings suggest a direct link between attention-dependent response modulations in early visual cortex and improved behavioral performance.

Getting mixed messages: the impact of conflicting social signals on the brain's target emotional response

Amidst a barrage of sensory information in the environment, the impact that individual stimuli have on our behaviour is thought to depend on the outcome of competition that occurs within and between multiple brain regions. Although biased competition models of attention have been tested in visual cortices and to a lesser extent in auditory cortex, little is known about the nature of stimulus competition outside of sensory areas. Given the hypothesized role of multiple pathways (cortical and subcortical) and specialized brain regions for processing valence information, studies involving conflicting basic emotional stimuli provide a unique opportunity to examine whether the principles of biased competition apply outside of sensory cortex. We used fMRI to examine the neural representation and resolution of emotional conflict in a sample of healthy individuals. Participants made explicit judgments about the valence of happy or fearful target facial expressions in the context of emotionally congruent, neutral, or incongruent distracters. The results suggest that emotional conflict is reflected in a dissociable manner across distinct neural regions. Posterior areas of visual cortex showed enhanced responding to congruent relative to neutral or incongruent stimuli. Orbitofrontal cortex remained sensitive to positive affect in the context of conflicting emotional stimuli. In contrast, within the amygdala, activity associated with identifying positive target expressions declined with the introduction of neutral and incongruent expressions; however, activity associated with fearful target expressions was less susceptible to the influence of emotional context. Enhanced functional connectivity was observed between medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala during incongruent trials; the degree of connectivity was correlated with reaction time costs incurred during incongruent trials. The results are interpreted with reference to current models of emotional attention and regulation.

Feature-based attention and the suppression of non-relevant object features

Feature-directed attention has been recently studied in various psychophysical, electrophysiological, and imaging studies. Convincing evidence has been obtained for its global effectiveness, but there is a debate about the processing fate of non-attended target features. A number of studies demonstrated feature-directed attention being associated with co-selection of non-relevant object features, thus resulting in selection of the entire object, whereas most other studies did not examine the extent to which processing of non-attended features was affected. Here, we present the results of two psychophysical experiments consisting of a Posner-like paradigm in which subjects were cued either to an individual feature or the entire object. We measured reaction times to changes in speed or colour of one of two simultaneously presented gratings. Our results strongly support the view that feature-based selection is a unique selection process different from object-based selection in that it can be associated with active suppression of non-relevant features.