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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 4, 2006, 26(1):138-142; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2784-05.2006

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BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Attention Lights Up New Object Representations before the Old Ones Fade Away

Paul S. Khayat,^1,3 Henk Spekreijse,¹ and Pieter R. Roelfsema^1,2

¹Department of Vision and Cognition, The Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands, ²Department of Experimental Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Free University Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and ³Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1Y6

We investigated how attention shifts from one object to another by recording neuronal activity in the primary visual cortex. Monkeys performed a contour-grouping task in which they had to select a target curve and ignore a distractor curve. Some trials required a shift of attention, because the target and distractor curves were switched during the course of the trial. We monitored the dynamics of this attention shift in area V1, in which neuronal responses evoked by the target curve are stronger than those evoked by the distractor. The reallocation of attention was associated with a rapid and strong enhancement of responses to the newly attended curve, followed, after 60 ms, by a weaker suppression of responses to the curve from which attention was removed. We conclude that attention can be rapidly allocated to a new object before it disengages from the previously attended one.

Key words: attention shifts; contour grouping; curve tracing; primary visual cortex; vision; macaque monkey

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Received Dec 13, 2004; revised November 3, 2005; accepted November 6, 2005.

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