The Neural Site of Attention Matches the Spatial Scale of Perception

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.4510-05.2006
• Publication Date: 2006-03-29T19:42:57Z
• Authors: Jens-Max Hopf; Steven J. Luck; Kai Boelmans; Mircea A. Schoenfeld; Carsten N. Boehler; Jochem Rieger; Hans-Jochen Heinze
• Keywords: Stimulus (psychology); Neural Activity; Extrastriate cortex

What is the neural locus of visual attention? Here we show that not fixed but instead changes rapidly to match spatial scale task-relevant information in current scene. To accomplish this, obtained electrical, magnetic, and hemodynamic measures attention from human subjects while they detected large-scale or small-scale targets within multiscale stimulus patterns. Subjects did know target before onset, yet attention-related activity between 250 300 ms varied according target. Specifically, maximal spread a high-level, relatively anterior area (the lateral occipital complex) for include lower-level, more posterior (visual V4) targets. This rapid change indicates cortex static determined dynamically by means an interaction top-down task local about input.