Attraction of Position Preference by Spatial Attention throughout Human Visual Cortex

Klein, Barrie P.; Harvey, Ben M.; Dumoulin, Serge O. · 2014 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.047

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how voluntary spatial attention influences spatial position selectivity in the human visual cortex. While previous research in macaques indicated that attention reweights neural response selectivity toward attended locations, it remained unclear whether this effect occurs throughout the entire human visual field and across all levels of the visual hierarchy. The authors aimed to determine if spatial attention attracts population receptive field (pRF) preferred positions globally and to characterize how this effect changes from early to higher visual areas. To address this, the researchers used high-field (7T) functional MRI to measure pRFs in five human subjects. Participants performed an attention-demanding contrast discrimination task at either the left or right side of the display while viewing a visual field mapping stimulus. The study modeled the effect of attention as a Gaussian interaction between a stimulus-driven pRF and an "attention field" centered on the attended location. This computational approach allowed the authors to estimate the size of the attention field and quantify changes in pRF preferred positions across various visual maps, including V1 through IPS4. The results demonstrated that spatial attention attracts pRF preferred positions across the entire visual field, not just at the attended location. These shifts in preferred position increased systematically up the visual hierarchy. The magnitude of these changes was strongly correlated with pRF size, with larger receptive fields in higher visual areas exhibiting greater attraction. Crucially, the modeling revealed that the extent of the attention field did not show a systematic progression through the hierarchy; rather, a common attention field across all visual maps adequately explained the observed data. This suggests that the increasing effects of attention up the hierarchy are primarily driven by differences in stimulus-driven pRF size rather than changes in the attention mechanism itself. The findings were robust across different stimulus and task variations and could not be explained by simulated eye movements. The significance of this work lies in its demonstration that spatial attention transforms neural response selectivities throughout the visual hierarchy in a consistent manner. The similarity of the attention field across areas suggests biological constancies in how spatial attention is implemented. By showing that the global attraction of position preference is a fundamental property of human visual processing, the study provides a unified framework for understanding how cognitive states modulate sensory processing from early to higher cortical stages.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• attention selective divided