Abstract
[Background] Temporal attention is the selection and prioritization of information at a specific moment. Voluntary deployment of temporal attention leads to behavioral benefits (higher accuracy and faster reaction time) at the attended moment. Whether an involuntary temporal attention mechanism exists remains an open question, as it has often been studied by manipulating temporal expectations. Expectation and attention differ in their behavioral outcomes and their underlying neural mechanisms; thus, it is important to manipulate involuntary temporal attention independently. [Goal] To investigate involuntary temporal attention independent of temporal expectation, and compare performance during attended and unattended moments in time. [Methods] Two oriented Gabors were presented sequentially at the fovea with variable stimulus onset. We manipulated involuntary temporal attention with a brief cue 100 ms prior to the target presentation. There was a temporal uncertainty for target onset, and the exogenous cue was temporally informative. Observers were asked to report the orientation of one of the targets indicated by a response cue at the end of the trial, which determined the cue validity: valid trials measured the performance for the target at the cued moment, and invalid trials measured performance for the target at the uncued moment. Both targets were cued in the neutral trials. [Results]. The results showed a main effect of cue validity and improved performance for the cued target as compared to the uncued target in accuracy and efficiency (accuracy/RT). [Conclusions] We designed a novel experimental procedure that allows for manipulation of involuntary temporal attention independent of expectation. More importantly, our results provide evidence that specific moments are involuntarily selected and prioritized such that the performance is improved at the attended moments.