Concurrent attention to hetero-depth surfaces in 3-D visual space is governed by theta rhythm

© 2023 Society for Psychophysiological Research..

When simultaneously confronted with multiple attentional targets, visual system employs a time-multiplexing approach in which each target alternates for prioritized access, a mechanism broadly known as rhythmic attentional sampling. For the past decade, rhythmic attentional sampling has received mounting support from converging behavioral and neural findings. However, so compelling are these findings that a critical test ground has been long overshadowed, namely the 3-D visual space where attention is complicated by extraction of the spatial layout of surfaces extending beyond 2-D planes. It remains unknown how attentional deployment to multiple targets is accomplished in the 3-D space. Here, we provided a time-resolved portrait of the behavioral and neural dynamics when participants concurrently attended to two surfaces defined by motion-depth conjunctions. To characterize the moment-to-moment attentional modulation effects, we measured perceptual sensitivity to the hetero-depth surface motions on a fine temporal scale and reconstructed their neural representations using a time-resolved multivariate inverted encoding model. We found that the perceptual sensitivity to the two surface motions rhythmically fluctuated over time at ~4 Hz, with one's enhancement closely tracked by the other's diminishment. Moreover, the behavioral pattern was coupled with an ongoing periodic alternation in strength between the two surface motion representations in the same frequency. Together, our findings provide the first converging evidence of an attentional "pendulum" that rhythmically traverses different stereoscopic depth planes and are indicative of a ubiquitous attentional time multiplexor based on theta rhythm in the 3-D visual space.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:61

Enthalten in:

Psychophysiology - 61(2024), 5 vom: 19. Apr., Seite e14494

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Deng, Hongyu [VerfasserIn]
Gao, Yuan [VerfasserIn]
Mo, Lei [VerfasserIn]
Mo, Ce [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

3‐D visual space
Attention
EEG
Journal Article
Rhythmic attentional sampling
Time‐resolved inverted encoding model

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 17.04.2024

Date Revised 17.04.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1111/psyp.14494

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM365324078