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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 12, 2005, 25(41):9444-9448; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2647-05.2005

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Processing Efficiency of Divided Spatial Attention Mechanisms in Human Visual Cortex

Stephanie A. McMains and David C. Somers

Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Many visual tasks require deployment of attention to multiple objects or locations. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral experiments to investigate the relative processing efficiency of two putative attentional mechanisms for performing such tasks: the "zoom lens" and "multiple spotlights." Two key questions were investigated: (1) does splitting the spotlight into multiple foci incur an overhead cost that diminishes the efficacy of attention compared with the zoom lens, and (2) does splitting the spotlight provide a benefit relative to the zoom lens by conserving attention resources that otherwise would be directed to task irrelevant stimuli? For both mechanisms, attending to multiple object locations decreased processing efficiency at a single location, resulting in both decreased behavioral performance and decreased blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal attentional modulation. When the two mechanisms attended to multiple objects across the same spatial extent, the multiple spotlight mechanism, which ignores intervening stimuli, yielded better performance and higher BOLD signal. When the two mechanisms processed the same number of stimuli, splitting the spotlight neither impaired performance nor diminished BOLD signal in occipital cortex. The surprising efficiency of the multiple spotlight mechanism supports the emerging view that spatial attention is easily deployed in a diverse range of spatial configurations.

Key words: attention; fMRI; human; visual; spatial; occipital

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Received June 27, 2005; revised August 17, 2005; accepted August 22, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. Drew and E. K. Vogel Neural Measures of Individual Differences in Selecting and Tracking Multiple Moving Objects J. Neurosci., April 16, 2008; 28(16): 4183 - 4191. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. VanRullen, T. Carlson, and P. Cavanagh The blinking spotlight of attention PNAS, December 4, 2007; 104(49): 19204 - 19209. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. D. Swisher, M. A. Halko, L. B. Merabet, S. A. McMains, and D. C. Somers Visual Topography of Human Intraparietal Sulcus J. Neurosci., May 16, 2007; 27(20): 5326 - 5337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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