Dissociable Effects of Endogenous and Exogenous Attention on Crowding: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Overview

Journal Brain Sci

Publisher MDPI

Date 2024 Oct 25

PMID 39451971

Authors

Mingliang Gong

Tingyu Liu

Yingbing Chen

Yingying Sun

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background/objectives: Crowding is a common visual phenomenon that can significantly impair the recognition of objects in peripheral vision. Two recent behavioral studies have revealed that both exogenous and endogenous attention can alleviate crowding, but exogenous attention seems to be more effective.

Methods: The present study employed the event-related potential (ERP) technique to explore the electrophysiological characteristics of the influence of these two types of attention on crowding. In the experiment, participants were required to judge whether the letter "T" was upright or inverted, which may be preceded by an exogenous cue or an endogenous cue indicating the location of the target letter.

Results: The behavioral results showed that while exogenous cues reduced crowding in all stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), endogenous attention took effects only in long SOA. The ERP results indicated that both endogenous and exogenous cues significantly alleviated the inhibition of visual crowding on the N1 component. However, the endogenous cue was effective only under long SOA, while the exogenous cue was effective only under short SOA conditions. In addition, invalid exogenous cues induced a larger P3 wave amplitude than valid ones in the short SOA condition, but endogenous attention did not show such a difference.

Conclusions: These results indicate that both endogenous and exogenous attention can alleviate the effects of visual crowding, but they differ in effect size and temporal dynamics.

References

Scolari M, Awh E . Object-based biased competition during covert spatial orienting. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2019; 81(5):1366-1385. PMC: 6635026. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-018-01656-6. View

Anton-Erxleben K, Carrasco M . Attentional enhancement of spatial resolution: linking behavioural and neurophysiological evidence. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013; 14(3):188-200. PMC: 3977878. DOI: 10.1038/nrn3443. View

Yeshurun Y, Rashal E . Precueing attention to the target location diminishes crowding and reduces the critical distance. J Vis. 2010; 10(10):16. DOI: 10.1167/10.10.16. View

Levi D, Carney T . Crowding in peripheral vision: why bigger is better. Curr Biol. 2009; 19(23):1988-93. PMC: 3045113. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.056. View

Giordano A, McElree B, Carrasco M . On the automaticity and flexibility of covert attention: a speed-accuracy trade-off analysis. J Vis. 2009; 9(3):30.1-10. PMC: 3684150. DOI: 10.1167/9.3.30. View

Bowen J, Alforque C, Silver M . Effects of involuntary and voluntary attention on critical spacing of visual crowding. J Vis. 2023; 23(3):2. PMC: 9987171. DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.3.2. View

Muller H, Rabbitt P . Reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention: time course of activation and resistance to interruption. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1989; 15(2):315-30. DOI: 10.1037//0096-1523.15.2.315. View

Montaser-Kouhsari L, Rajimehr R . Subliminal attentional modulation in crowding condition. Vision Res. 2005; 45(7):839-44. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.10.020. View

Whitney D, Levi D . Visual crowding: a fundamental limit on conscious perception and object recognition. Trends Cogn Sci. 2011; 15(4):160-8. PMC: 3070834. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.02.005. View

10.

Carrasco M, Barbot A . How Attention Affects Spatial Resolution. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2015; 79:149-60. PMC: 4698156. DOI: 10.1101/sqb.2014.79.024687. View

11.

Hickey C, van Zoest W, Theeuwes J . The time course of exogenous and endogenous control of covert attention. Exp Brain Res. 2009; 201(4):789-96. PMC: 2839488. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-009-2094-9. View

12.

Busse L, Katzner S, Treue S . Temporal dynamics of neuronal modulation during exogenous and endogenous shifts of visual attention in macaque area MT. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008; 105(42):16380-5. PMC: 2571002. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707369105. View

13.

Hussain Z, Webb B, Astle A, McGraw P . Perceptual learning reduces crowding in amblyopia and in the normal periphery. J Neurosci. 2012; 32(2):474-80. PMC: 3428833. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3845-11.2012. View

14.

Gong M, Liu T, Liu X, Huangfu B, Geng F . Attention relieves visual crowding: Dissociable effects of peripheral and central cues. J Vis. 2023; 23(5):9. PMC: 10179668. DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.5.9. View

15.

Cheal M, Lyon D . Central and peripheral precuing of forced-choice discrimination. Q J Exp Psychol A. 1991; 43(4):859-80. DOI: 10.1080/14640749108400960. View

16.

Ronconi L, Bertoni S, Bellacosa Marotti R . The neural origins of visual crowding as revealed by event-related potentials and oscillatory dynamics. Cortex. 2016; 79:87-98. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.03.005. View

17.

Dugue L, Merriam E, Heeger D, Carrasco M . Differential impact of endogenous and exogenous attention on activity in human visual cortex. Sci Rep. 2020; 10(1):21274. PMC: 7718281. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78172-x. View

18.

Dakin S, Bex P, Cass J, Watt R . Dissociable effects of attention and crowding on orientation averaging. J Vis. 2010; 9(11):28.1-16. PMC: 2927104. DOI: 10.1167/9.11.28. View

19.

Kok A . On the utility of P3 amplitude as a measure of processing capacity. Psychophysiology. 2001; 38(3):557-77. DOI: 10.1017/s0048577201990559. View

20.

Luck S, Hillyard S, Mouloua M, Woldorff M, Clark V, Hawkins H . Effects of spatial cuing on luminance detectability: psychophysical and electrophysiological evidence for early selection. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1994; 20(4):887-904. DOI: 10.1037//0096-1523.20.4.887. View