The Time Course of Inhibition of Return: Evidence from Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials.

Ai-Su Li,Yang Zhang,Cheng-Guo Miao,Shuang Wang,Gong-Liang Zhang,Ming Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01562

Abstract

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slower responses to targets at a previously cued location than that at an uncued location. The time course of IOR has long been a topic of interest in the field. Investigations into the time course of IOR are typically performed by examining the magnitude of IOR under various cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA) conditions. Therefore, the results are vulnerable to influence of factors that could affect the target processes (e.g., the frequency of the target type). In the present study, steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) were implemented to directly take a continuous measurement of the degree to which cued location is processed, eliminating the influence mentioned above. The results indicate that, relative to the baseline interval (−400 to 0 ms), the presence of peripheral cues generated a typical two-stage effect on the SSVEP amplitude evoked by a 20 Hz flicker. Specifically, after the onset of the peripheral cues, the SSVEP amplitude first showed a significant increase, which subsequently turned into a significant inhibition effect after 200 ms. These results provide a continuous time course diagram of the cueing effect and suggest an effective way for future investigations of controlling the masking effects of target stimuli processing on IOR.

Highlights

IntroductionThe ability to efficiently search for a particular object or target (e.g., looking for a friend in a busy train station) in a cluttered environment is a fundamental skill of the human cognitive system (Najemnik and Geisler, 2005)
The ability to efficiently search for a particular object or target in a cluttered environment is a fundamental skill of the human cognitive system (Najemnik and Geisler, 2005)
Comparing the difference in the state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) amplitudes evoked by the 20 Hz flicker at the cued and uncued locations, we investigated the impact of the peripheral cue on the SSVEP

Summary

Introduction

The ability to efficiently search for a particular object or target (e.g., looking for a friend in a busy train station) in a cluttered environment is a fundamental skill of the human cognitive system (Najemnik and Geisler, 2005). The cognitive system must reduce the probability of returning to previously searched locations (Klein, 1988). Previous studies have demonstrated that inhibition of return (IOR) may involve a mechanism supporting optimized search efficiency by discouraging attention from returning to a previously searched location (Macinnes and Klein, 2003; MacInnes et al, 2014). Researchers have referred to this suppression effect as IOR and have conducted extensive research on it, including its time course (Lupiáñez et al, 2001; McCrae and Abrams, 2001; Samuel and Kat, 2003; Müller, 2008), components (Chica et al, 2010; Hilchey et al, 2012, 2014), mechanism (Fuentes et al, 2000; Satel and Wang, 2012; Zhang et al, 2013), plasticity (Xu et al, 2015), as well as electrophysiological correlations (Prime and Ward, 2006; Prime and Jolicoeur, 2009; Satel et al, 2013, 2014a). The Time Course of IOR: A SSVEP Study

Methods

Results

Conclusion