Determinants of mobilization of attention

• Grant number: 12/17400-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Eduardo Ribeiro Do Valle
• Grantee: Gabrielle de Jesus Novaes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

A peripheral prime stimulus, represented by a ring, causes a robust automatic attentional effect 100ms later when a vertical line inside a ring (VLR) is used as a target stimulus. Surprisingly, it does not cause any automatic attentional effect at this time when a cross inside the ring (CRR) is used as a target stimulus. We will examine in this study whether the latter result is due to antagonism of the automatic attentional influence of the prime stimulus by its masking influence or to filtering out of this stimulus because it is spatially non-informative in the task. In a first experiment, we will investigate whether the prime stimulus, despite causing the attentional effect only for the VLR, causes a local inhibitory effect at 800 ms (due to the activation of the inhibition of return process) which is similar for the VLR and the CRR. The latter result would indicate that the prime stimulus is not filtered out when the CRR is the target stimulus. In a second experiment, we will characterize the exact nature (facilitator or inhibitory) of the local effect and the distant effect of the prime stimulus at 100ms for the VLR and the CRR. We will use a spatially neutral condition to identify the facilitator and inhibitory effects. If we obtain a local facilitator effect and a distant inhibitory effect for the VLR and a local and a distant inhibitory effect for the CRR we will be able to conclude that the prime stimulus mobilizes automatic attention in the case of both target stimuli but masks selectively the CRR.(AU)