Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, B76 East Stadium, Lincoln, NE 68588-2056, USA.
X Development LLC, United States.
Neuroimage. 2019 Apr 1;189:878-885. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.01.066. Epub 2019 Jan 28.
The human visual system selects information from dense and complex streams of spatiotemporal input. This selection process is aided by prior knowledge of the features, location, and temporal proximity of an upcoming stimulus. In the laboratory, this knowledge is often conveyed by cues, preceding a task-relevant target stimulus. Response speed in cued selection tasks varies within and across participants and is often thought to index efficient selection of a cued feature, location, or moment in time. The present study used a reverse correlation approach to identify neural predictors of efficient target discrimination: Participants identified the orientation of a sinusoidal grating, which was presented in one hemifield following the presentation of bilateral visual cues that carried temporal but not spatial information about the target. Across different analytic approaches, faster target responses were predicted by larger alpha power preceding the target. These results suggest that heightened pre-target alpha power during a cue period may index a state that is beneficial for subsequent target processing. Our findings are broadly consistent with models that emphasize capacity sharing across time, as well as models that link alpha oscillations to temporal predictions regarding upcoming events.
人类视觉系统从密集且复杂的时空输入流中选择信息。这种选择过程得益于对即将到来的刺激的特征、位置和时间接近度的先验知识的帮助。在实验室中，这种知识通常通过线索来传达，这些线索先于与任务相关的目标刺激。在有线索选择任务中，参与者的反应速度在个体内和个体间都有所不同，并且通常被认为是对线索特征、位置或时间的有效选择的指标。本研究使用反向相关方法来确定有效目标辨别力的神经预测因子：参与者识别正弦光栅的方向，在呈现双边视觉线索之后，在一个半视野中呈现视觉线索，这些线索携带关于目标的时间信息但不携带空间信息。通过不同的分析方法，更快的目标反应与目标之前更大的α 功率有关。这些结果表明，在线索期间增强的前目标α 功率可能是对后续目标处理有益的状态的指标。我们的发现与强调跨时间共享能力的模型以及将α 振荡与关于即将发生的事件的时间预测联系起来的模型广泛一致。
