S6-1: Attention and Interocular Competition

Abstract

Visual attention functions to select relevant information for further processing among vast amounts of visual input, and attention is generally important for resolving competition between neural representations. I will first describe a set of EEG experiments investigating the role of attention in resolving interocular competition. Using an EEG frequency tagging method to track cortical representations of the conflicting images presented separately to the two eyes, we show that when attention was diverted away interocular competition remained unresolved. I will also describe a series of behavioral experiments showing that voluntary attention can be eye-specific, modulating visual processing within a specific monocular channel, despite that fact that observers normally do not have explicit access to the eye-of-origin information.