eeg correlates of attentional load during multiple object tracking脑电图与注意力负载在多个对象的跟踪.pdfVIP

EEG Correlates of Attentional Load during Multiple Object Tracking 1 2 3 Heather Sternshein , Yigal Agam , Robert Sekuler * 1 Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 2 Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 3 Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States of America Abstract While human subjects tracked a subset of ten identical, randomly-moving objects, event-related potentials (ERPs) were evoked at parieto-occipital sites by task-irrelevant flashes that were superimposed on either tracked (Target) or non-tracked (Distractor) objects. With ERPs as markers of attention, we investigated how allocation of attention varied with tracking load, that is, with the number of objects that were tracked. Flashes on Target discs elicited stronger ERPs than did flashes on Distractor discs; ERP amplitude (0–250 ms) decreased monotonically as load increased from two to three to four (of ten) discs. Amplitude decreased more rapidly for Target discs than Distractor discs. As a result, with increasing tracking loads, the difference between ERPs to Targets and Distractors diminished. This change in ERP amplitudes with load accords well with behavioral performance, suggesting that successful tracking depends upon the relationship between the neural signals associated with attended and non-attended objects. Citation: Sternshein H, Agam Y, Sekuler R (2011) EEG Correlates of Attentional Load during Multiple Object Tracking. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22660. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0022660 Editor: Naomi Rogers, Central Queensland University, Australia Received January 28, 2011; Accepted June 28, 2011;