Unbalancing the Attentional Priority Map via Gaze-Contingent Displays Induces Neglect-Like Visual Exploration. 2020

Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.

Selective spatial attention is a crucial cognitive process that guides us to the behaviorally relevant objects in a complex visual world by using exploratory eye movements. The spatial location of objects, their (bottom-up) saliency and (top-down) relevance is assumed to be encoded in one "attentional priority map" in the brain, using different egocentric (eye-, head- and trunk-centered) spatial reference frames. In patients with hemispatial neglect, this map is supposed to be imbalanced, leading to a spatially biased exploration of the visual environment. As a proof of concept, we altered the visual saliency (and thereby attentional priority) of objects in a naturalistic scene along a left-right spatial gradient and investigated whether this can induce a bias in the exploratory eye movements of healthy humans (n = 28; all right-handed; mean age: 23 years, range 19-48). We developed a computerized mask, using high-end "gaze-contingent display (GCD)" technology, that immediately and continuously reduced the saliency of objects on the left-"left" with respect to the head (body-centered) and the current position on the retina (eye-centered). In both experimental conditions, task-free viewing and goal-driven visual search, this modification induced a mild but significant bias in visual exploration similar to hemispatial neglect. Accordingly, global eye movement parameters changed (reduced number and increased duration of fixations) and the spatial distribution of fixations indicated an attentional bias towards the right (rightward shift of first orienting, fixations favoring the scene's outmost right over left). Our results support the concept of an attentional priority map in the brain as an interface between perception and behavior and as one pathophysiological ground of hemispatial neglect.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
August 2019, Neuropsychologia,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
December 2004, Cyberpsychology & behavior : the impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual reality on behavior and society,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
August 2006, Journal of vision,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
January 2003, Human factors,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
June 2014, Behavior research methods,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
November 2002, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
May 2018, Attention, perception & psychophysics,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
January 1992, The International journal of neuroscience,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
May 2013, Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews,
Björn Machner, and Marie C Lencer, and Lisa Möller, and Janina von der Gablentz, and Wolfgang Heide, and Christoph Helmchen, and Andreas Sprenger
November 2021, IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics,
Copied contents to your clipboard!