Selective Attention to Specific Features within Objects….pdfVIP

Selective Attention to Specific Features within Objects: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence 1 1 2 Anna Christina Nobre , Anling Rao , and Leonardo Chelazzi Abstract Evidence regarding the ability of attention to bias neural specific features (negative priming for features) was indexed by processing at the level of single features has been gathering a decrease in performance to detect one particular feature steadily, but most of the experiments to date used arrays with value (e.g., red) if the same feature value (red) but not another multiple objects and locations, making it difficult to rule out color value (green) had been ignored in the previous bidi- indirect influences from object or spatial attention. To mensional stimulus. Behavioral results confirmed the existence investigate feature-specific selective attention, we have as- of inhibitory, negative-priming mechanisms at the single- sessed the ability to select and ignore individual features within feature level for both color and motion dimensions of stimuli. the same object. We used a negative-priming paradigm in Event-related potentials recorded during task performance which the color or the direction of internal motion of the revealed the dynamics of neural modulation by feature at- object could determine the relevant response. Bidimensional tention. Comparisons were made using the identical physical (colored and moving) and unidimensional (colored and stimuli under different conditions of attention to isolate purely stationary, or gray and moving) stimuli appeared in unpredict- attentional effects. Processing of ident