Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming using Transient Where and sustained What stream inputs

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve invariant object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations and their effects on individual differences in reaction times? The current work builds on the ARTSCAN model [Fazl, Grossberg and Mingolla, 2009, Cognitive Psychology 58(1):1-48] of how spatial attention in the Where cortical stream coordinates stable, view-invariant object category learning in the What cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The earlier model predicted that “attentional shrouds” are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC), and how active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception. The present work clarifies how interactions of fast transient Where stream inputs from cortical area MT and slow sustained What stream inputs from V4 influence both PPC and prefrontal cortex (PFC), whose interactions with V4 explain psychological data about covert attention switching and multifocal attention without eye movements.

Information

Sprecher

Herr Prof. Ennio Mingolla
Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Centre of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST) 

Datum

Montag, 12. September 2011, 14 Uhr c.t.

Ort

Universität Ulm, N27, Raum 2.033 (Videoübertragung zur Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg G26.1-010)