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Automatic change detection and spatial attention: a visual mismatch negativity study
Author(s) -
File Domonkos,
Sulykos István,
Czigler István
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.13945
Subject(s) - mismatch negativity , psychology , event related potential , audiology , oddball paradigm , negativity effect , offset (computer science) , cognitive psychology , electroencephalography , communication , computer science , medicine , programming language , psychiatry
Visual mismatch negativity ( vMMN ) is the electrophysiological correlate of automatic detection of unattended changes in the visual environment. However, vMMN s’ relatedness to spatial attention has not been explicitly tested. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate the effects of spatial attention on the vMMN event‐related potential component. To this end, participants were instructed to fixate and attend to task‐related stimuli. In an oddball sequence, offset stimuli were applied, i.e., from time‐to time, the two sides of permanently presented objects disappeared. Distance between the task‐related and unrelated events resulted in the typical finding of spatial attention; the amplitude of the N1 component was larger at the shorter distance between the two kinds of events. VMMN was elicited by the deviant vanishing parts, with no reliable effect of distance between the task‐field and vMMN ‐related stimuli. In terms of the difference potentials, vMMN was followed by a positive posterior component in the 270–330 ms range. This positivity was much larger when the task‐field was close to vMMN ‐related stimuli. The reappearance of the vanishing parts was also investigated. The reappearance of the whole objects after a deviant offset elicited vMMN but only when the task‐field was close to the oddball sequence. We concluded that infrequently vanishing parts of objects are detected automatically. However, these deviant events initiate orientation only if the objects are close to the field of task‐relevant events. Similarly, automatic registration of the rare but expected events are registered only in the visual field close to the focus of attention.