Abstract
Previous studies showed that surface feature (e.g color, shape) served as an important role during multiple object tracking (MOT). Different feature combinations may result in different tracking performance. Hence, we decomposed three main predictive variables from the different color combinations of objects, which were color distinctiveness between the target set and distractor set (DTD), the color complexity of target set (CT), the color complexity of distractor set (CD). In the current study, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanism of the effect of different feature combinations (i.e color) during MOT. 22 participants were recruited with within-subjects repeated measure design and then four conditions were conducted. The neuroimaging data analyzed by permutation-based non-parametric one-sample t-tests (family-wise error cluster level at p < .05) supported further behavioral results. There was no significant activity difference between Inter-target-1 and Inter-target-4. And compared to Inter-target-4, all unique condition showed increased activations in inferior frontal gyrus (p. Triangularis, IFG), intraparietal sulcus (IPS), superior parietal lobule (SPL), precuneus in left hemisphere, angular gyrus (AG), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), IFG (p. Opercularis), precuneus in right hemisphere. In the contrast of paired-four versus Inter-target-1 and paired-four versus Inter-target-4, both of them showed positive activations in bilateral MFG and negative activations in bilateral rectal gyrus, right putamen, left superior medial gyrus, and right linual gyrus. These findings provide neuroimaging evidences that the color complexity of target set (CT) has similar effect on tracking as tracking load, while the color complexity of distractor set (CD) does not. Color distinctiveness between target set and distractor set enhances tracking performance by to maintaining selectively attention towards targets during tracking, and putamen plays an important role for distinguishing targets from distractors during tracking.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017