Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system
Directing visual attention to spatial locations or to non-spatial stimulus features can strongly modulate responses of individual cortical sensory neurons. Effects of attention typically vary in magnitude, not only between visual cortical areas but also between individual neurons from the same area....
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2009-10-01
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Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.012.2009/full |
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doaj-33bee9d7680c431ca6ddb57e79bfca532020-11-24T21:33:14ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience1662-51372009-10-01310.3389/neuro.06.012.2009813Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional systemSteffen Katzner0Steffen Katzner1Steffen Katzner2Laura Busse3Laura Busse4Laura Busse5Stefan Treue6Stefan Treue7Stefan Treue8Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceGerman Primate CenterUniversity of GöttingenBernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceGerman Primate CenterUniversity of GöttingenBernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceGerman Primate CenterUniversity of GöttingenDirecting visual attention to spatial locations or to non-spatial stimulus features can strongly modulate responses of individual cortical sensory neurons. Effects of attention typically vary in magnitude, not only between visual cortical areas but also between individual neurons from the same area. Here, we investigate whether the size of attentional effects depends on the match between the tuning properties of the recorded neuron and the perceptual task at hand. We recorded extracellular responses from individual direction-selective neurons in area MT of rhesus monkeys trained to attend either to the color or the motion signal of a moving stimulus. We found that effects of spatial and feature-based attention in MT, which are typically observed in tasks allocating attention to motion, were very similar even when attention was directed to the color of the stimulus. We conclude that attentional modulation can occur in extrastriate cortex, even under conditions without a match between the tuning properties of the recorded neuron and the perceptual task at hand. Our data are consistent with theories of object-based attention describing a transfer of attention from relevant to irrelevant features, within the attended object and across the visual field. These results argue for a unified attentional system that modulates responses to a stimulus across cortical areas, even if a given area is specialized for processing task-irrelevant aspects of that stimulus.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.012.2009/fullAttentionColormotionmiddle temporal area MTneuronal representationvisual objects |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Laura Busse Laura Busse Laura Busse Stefan Treue Stefan Treue Stefan Treue |
spellingShingle |
Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Laura Busse Laura Busse Laura Busse Stefan Treue Stefan Treue Stefan Treue Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience Attention Color motion middle temporal area MT neuronal representation visual objects |
author_facet |
Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Steffen Katzner Laura Busse Laura Busse Laura Busse Stefan Treue Stefan Treue Stefan Treue |
author_sort |
Steffen Katzner |
title |
Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system |
title_short |
Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system |
title_full |
Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system |
title_fullStr |
Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system |
title_full_unstemmed |
Attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area MT: evidence for a unified attentional system |
title_sort |
attention to the color of a moving stimulus modulates motion-signal processing in macaque area mt: evidence for a unified attentional system |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5137 |
publishDate |
2009-10-01 |
description |
Directing visual attention to spatial locations or to non-spatial stimulus features can strongly modulate responses of individual cortical sensory neurons. Effects of attention typically vary in magnitude, not only between visual cortical areas but also between individual neurons from the same area. Here, we investigate whether the size of attentional effects depends on the match between the tuning properties of the recorded neuron and the perceptual task at hand. We recorded extracellular responses from individual direction-selective neurons in area MT of rhesus monkeys trained to attend either to the color or the motion signal of a moving stimulus. We found that effects of spatial and feature-based attention in MT, which are typically observed in tasks allocating attention to motion, were very similar even when attention was directed to the color of the stimulus. We conclude that attentional modulation can occur in extrastriate cortex, even under conditions without a match between the tuning properties of the recorded neuron and the perceptual task at hand. Our data are consistent with theories of object-based attention describing a transfer of attention from relevant to irrelevant features, within the attended object and across the visual field. These results argue for a unified attentional system that modulates responses to a stimulus across cortical areas, even if a given area is specialized for processing task-irrelevant aspects of that stimulus. |
topic |
Attention Color motion middle temporal area MT neuronal representation visual objects |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.012.2009/full |
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