Interacting rhythms enhance sensitivity of target detection in a fronto-parietal computational model of visual attention

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.67684
• Publication Date: 2023-01-31T11:00:37Z
• Authors: Amélie Aussel; Ian C Fiebelkorn; Sabine Kastner; Nancy J Kopell; Benjamin Rafael P...
• Keywords: Visual processing

Even during sustained attention, enhanced processing of attended stimuli waxes and wanes rhythmically, with periods relatively diminished visual (and subsequent target detection) alternating at 4 or 8 Hz in a attention task. These attentional states occur alongside dynamical states, which lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP), the frontal eye field (FEF), mediodorsal pulvinar (mdPul) exhibit different activity functional connectivity α, β, γ frequencies—rhythms associated processing, working memory, motor suppression. To assess whether how these multiple interacting rhythms contribute to periodicity we propose detailed computational model FEF LIP. When driven by θ-rhythmic inputs simulating experimentally-observed mdPul activity, this reproduced rhythmic dynamics behavioral consequences observed revealing that frequencies mechanisms allow for peak sensitivity detection while maintaining flexibility.