Abstract
Although early neurobiological and psychophysical evidence indicates some inhomogeneities of the human visual field such as different sensitivities measured by light-difference thresholds and different saccadic programming modes for perifoveal and peripheral stimuli, attention control in the visual field is traditionally believed to be homogenous. Using spatial cueing paradigms new evidence has been accumulated, pointing towards a functional subdivision of attention control in the visual field. Specifically, the periphery is significantly different from fovea and perifoveal regions of the visual field. An overview of behavioral studies measuring both exogenous and endogenous cueing effects as well as imaging studies measuring inhibition of return effects using ERP, fMRI and MEG technologies is provided to systematically examine these new observations. Different attention systems rather than one unitary system responsible for the attention control in different areas of the visual field are proposed. References Bao, Y., Lei, Q., Fang, Y., Tong, Y., Schill, K., Pöppel, E., & Strasburger, H. (2013). Inhibition of Return in the Visual Field: the Eccentricity Effect is Independent of Cortical Magnification. Experimental Psychology. 60, 425-431. Bao, Y., & Pöppel, E. (2007). Two spatially separated attention systems in the visual field: evidence from inhibition of return. Cognitive Processing, 8: 37-44. Bao, Y., Sander, T., Trahms, L., Pöppel, E., Lei, Q. and Zhou, B. (2011). The eccentricity effect of inhibition of return is resistant to practice. Neuroscience Letters, 500: 47-51. Bao, Y., Wang, Z., Liang, W., Wang, Y., Pöppel, E., & Li, H. (2013) Inhibition of Return at Different Eccentricities in the Visual Field Share the Same Temporal Window. Neuroscience Letters, 534, 7-11. Lei, Q., Bao, Y., Wang, B., & Gutyrchik, E. (2012). fMRI Correlates of Inhibition of Return in Perifoveal and Peripheral Visual field. Cognitive Processing, 13(Suppl.), 223-227. Acknowledgement The studies were supported by the NSFC (No. 30670703, No.91120004, and No. 31371018).
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014