Attention-demanding Task Research Articles

Brain Electrodynamic and Hemodynamic Signatures Against Fatigue During Driving.

Fatigue is likely to be gradually cumulated in a prolonged and attention-demanding task that may adversely affect task performance. To address the brain dynamics during a driving task, this study recruited 16 subjects to participate in an event-related lane-departure driving experiment. Each subject was instructed to maintain attention and task performance throughout an hour-long driving experiment. The subjects' brain electrodynamics and hemodynamics were simultaneously recorded via 32-channel electroencephalography (EEG) and 8-source/16-detector functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The behavior performance demonstrated that all subjects were able to promptly respond to lane-deviation events, even if the sign of fatigue arose in the brain, which suggests that the subjects were fighting fatigue during the driving experiment. The EEG event-related analysis showed strengthening alpha suppression in the occipital cortex, a common brain region of fatigue. Furthermore, we noted increasing oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) of the brain to fight driving fatigue in the frontal cortex, primary motor cortex, parieto-occipital cortex and supplementary motor area. In conclusion, the increasing neural activity and cortical activations were aimed at maintaining driving performance when fatigue emerged. The electrodynamic and hemodynamic signatures of fatigue fighting contribute to our understanding of the brain dynamics of driving fatigue and address driving safety issues through the maintenance of attention and behavioral performance.

Trip-specific training enhances recovery after large postural disturbances for which there is NO expectation

PurposeInformed consent usually provides foreknowledge of experimental methods that can potentially increase expectation of stimuli and, therefore, influence the response. We determined the effects of increased expectation and trip-specific training on the recovery response following a treadmill-delivered, trip-specific disturbance. To deliver unexpected disturbances, subjects were deceived during the informed consent process. The primary hypothesis was that the recovery response following an expected postural disturbance would be characterized by trunk kinematics that have been shown to decrease the likelihood of a fall, compared to following an unexpected postural disturbance. We further hypothesized that following an unexpected postural disturbance, the recovery response of the subjects who had completed a trip-specific training protocol would be more biomechanically favorable to recovery compared to those of subjects who had not received the training. MethodsYoung adults were randomized into Untrained or Trained groups. During the informed consent process, the purpose of the study was explained to subjects in both groups as being to determine the effect of trip-specific training on postural sway while performing an attention-demanding task. Untrained subjects completed two trials during which they minimized their postural sway. During the second trial, an unexpected disturbance was delivered while they performed the attention-demanding task. Trained subjects performed a pre-training postural sway trial, followed by the delivery of a series of expected, training disturbances. Finally, an unexpected disturbance was delivered while they minimized postural sway and performed the attention-demanding task. ResultsExpectation significantly improved trunk kinematics (p < .05). In addition, participation in the trip-specific training protocol following the unexpected disturbance the trunk kinematics of the Trained subjects were more biomechanically favorable to recovery than those of the Untrained subjects (p < .01). ConclusionImproved trunk kinematics following trip-specific training may be independent of the extent to which the disturbance is expected.

Theta Oscillations Organize Spiking Activity in Higher-Order Visual Thalamus during Sustained Attention.

Higher-order visual thalamus plays a fundamental but poorly understood role in attention-demanding tasks. To investigate how neuronal dynamics in higher-order visual thalamus are modulated by sustained attention, we performed multichannel electrophysiological recordings in the lateral posterior-pulvinar complex (LP/pulvinar) in the ferret (Mustela putorius furo). We recorded single unit activity and local field potential (LFP) during the performance of the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), which is used in both humans and animals as an assay of sustained attention. We found that half of the units exhibited an increasing firing rate during the delay period before stimulus onset (attention-modulated units). In contrast, the non-attention-modulated units responded to the stimulus, but not during the delay period. Spike-field coherence (SFC) of only the attention-modulated neurons significantly increased from the start of the delay period until screen touch, predominantly in the θ frequency band. In addition, θ power and θ/γ phase amplitude coupling (PAC) were elevated throughout the delay period. Our findings suggest that the θ oscillation plays a central role in orchestrating thalamic signaling during sustained attention.

Changes of Gait Variability by the Attention Demanding Task in Elderly Adults

Purpose: Gait variability is defined as the intrinsic fluctuations which occur during continuous gait cycles. Increased gait variability is closely associated with increased fall risk in older adults. This study investigated the influence of attention-demanding tasks on gait variability in elderly healthy adults. Methods: We recruited 15 healthy elderly adults in this study. All participants performed two cognitive tasks: a subtraction dual-task (SDT) and working memory dual-task (WMDT) during gait plus one normal gait. Using the LEGSys+ system, we measured the coefficient of variation (CV %=100×[standard deviation/mean]) for participants’ stride time, stride length, and stride velocity. Results: SDT gait showed significant increment of stride time variability compared with usual gait (p 0.05). WMDT gait showed significant increment of stride time and velocity variability compared with usual gait (p<0.05). In addition, stride time variability during WMDT gait also significantly increased compared with SDT gait (p<0.05). Conclusion: We reported that SDT and WMDT gait can induce the increment of the gait variability in elderly adults. We assume that attention demanding task based on working memory has the most influence on the interference between cognitive and gait function. Understanding the changes during dual task gait in older ages would be helpful for physical intervention strategies and improved risk assessment.

Imaging the Creative Unconscious: Reflexive Neural Responses to Objects in the Visual and Parahippocampal Region Predicts State and Trait Creativity

What does it take to have a creative mind? Theories of creative cognition assert that the quantity of automatic associations places fundamental constraints on the probability of reaching creative solutions. Due to the difficulties inherent in isolating automated associative responses from cognitive control, the neural basis underlying this faculty remains unknown. Here we acquired fMRI data in an incidental-viewing paradigm in which subjects performed an attention-demanding task whilst viewing task-irrelevant objects. By assigning a standard creativity task on the same objects out of the scanner, as well as a battery of psychometric creativity tests, we could assess whether stimulus-bound neural activity was predictive of state or trait variability in creativity. We found that stimulus-bound responses in superior occipital regions were linearly predictive of trial-by-trial variability in creative performance (state-creativity), and that in more creative individuals (trait-creativity) this response was more strongly expressed in entorhinal cortex. Additionally, the mean response to the onset of objects in parahippocampal gyrus was predictive of trait differences in creativity. This work suggests that, creative individuals are endowed with occipital and medial temporal reflexes that generate a greater fluency in associative representations, making them more accessible for ideation even when no ideation is explicitly called for.

Patterns of activation and de-activation associated with cue-guided spatial navigation: A whole-brain, voxel-based study

Functional imaging studies have implicated the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus in cue-guided spatial navigation, but also many other regions. Furthermore, little is known about de-activations that take place during performance of navigation tasks, something that is of interest given that the hippocampus is a component of the default mode network, which de-activates during attention-demanding tasks. In this study 22 healthy subjects underwent whole-brain functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while they navigated toward a previously learned goal in a virtual reality environment. At a threshold of p<0.05 corrected, the subjects showed a pattern of widespread cortical activations, including the parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortex and also parts of the frontal, temporal and occipital cortex. Hippocampal activation, however, was restricted to the posterior portion of the structure bilaterally. De-activations were seen in the medial frontal cortex and other regions of the default mode network, but not in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus. The findings support the involvement of the hippocampus in cue-guided navigation, but suggest that its posterior regions are particularly important. Cue-guided spatial navigation is associated with de-activation in some but not all parts of the default mode network.

Task difficulty modulates brain activation in the emotional oddball task

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported that task-irrelevant, emotionally salient events can disrupt target discrimination, particularly when attentional demands are low, while others demonstrate alterations in the distracting effects of emotion in behavior and neural activation in the context of attention-demanding tasks. We used fMRI, in conjunction with an emotional oddball task, at different levels of target discrimination difficulty, to investigate the effects of emotional distractors on the detection of subsequent targets. In addition, we distinguished different behavioral components of target detection representing decisional, nondecisional, and response criterion processes. Results indicated that increasing target discrimination difficulty led to increased time required for both the decisional and nondecisional components of the detection response, as well as to increased target-related neural activation in frontoparietal regions. The emotional distractors were associated with activation in ventral occipital and frontal regions and dorsal frontal regions, but this activation was attenuated with increased difficulty. Emotional distraction did not alter the behavioral measures of target detection, but did lead to increased target-related frontoparietal activation for targets following emotional images as compared to those following neutral images. This latter effect varied with target discrimination difficulty, with an increased influence of the emotional distractors on subsequent target-related frontoparietal activation in the more difficult discrimination condition. This influence of emotional distraction was in addition associated specifically with the decisional component of target detection. These findings indicate that emotion-cognition interactions, in the emotional oddball task, vary depending on the difficulty of the target discrimination and the associated limitations on processing resources.

Density of available striatal dopamine receptors predicts trait impulsiveness during performance of an attention-demanding task.

The density (measured at binding potential) of available striatal D2/D3 receptors has been shown to predict trait impulsiveness. This relationship is highly robust and well replicated. In each case, however, the availability of dopamine receptors was measured at rest. More broadly, the extent to which relationships between dopamine receptor availability and behavioral traits hold when participants perform a cognitive task is unclear. Furthermore, the performance of a cognitive task engages fundamentally different neural networks than are maximally engaged during the resting state. This complicates interpretation of previously observed correlations, which could be influenced by two distinct factors. The first is variation in available receptor density, which reflects a stable trait of the individual. The second is variation in context-specific dopamine release, which differentially displaces some dopamine radiotracers (such as raclopride) across individuals. Using an existing data set, we related trait impulsiveness, as measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), to the density (binding potential) of available striatal D2/D3 receptors as measured using positron emission tomography (PET) with [11C]raclopride. Importantly, the PET scan was completed while participants performed an attention-demanding visual search task. We replicate robust correlations between this measure of receptor availability and trait impulsiveness previously demonstrated during the resting state, extending this relationship to periods of active task engagement. Our results support the idea that this relationship depends on striatal D2/D3 receptor density and not on context-dependent dopamine release.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Several studies have demonstrated a relationship between the density of available striatal D2/D3 receptors and trait impulsiveness. However, in each case, the availability of dopamine receptors was measured during the resting state. This complicates interpretation of previously observed correlations, which could be influenced by either stable variation in receptor density or context-dependent dopamine release. We present evidence uniquely consistent with the former interpretation, providing clarity to the nature of this brain-behavior relationship.

Unbalanced resting-state networks activity in psychophysiological insomnia

Psychophysiological insomnia (PI) is a clinical condition characterized by sleep-related disturbing cognitive activity and biased self-related information processing. This hypothetical cognitive arousal has been hypothesized to be associated with overactivation within different brain areas and networks, especially when individuals are at rest, e.g., in the absence of any attention-demanding task. In this study, we carried out a resting-state fMRI experiment aimed at investigating activity of the different resting-state networks in PI. Our pool of participants was compound of 5 PI patients and 5 sex- and age-matched healthy controls recruited from the community. Participants from both groups also completed a set of self-report measures, including the sleep diary, Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS-30), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure (WHOQOL-Bref). Our results showed that insomnia patients presented altered activation in the default-mode network (DMN), visual and auditory networks, and bilateral fronto-parietal networks. In the DMN, the patients presented a pattern of both decreased (right superior frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, and right middle temporal gyrus) and increased activation (left superior frontal gyrus, left anterior and posterior cingulate, right precuneus, left cingulate gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus). Our findings on unbalanced resting-state networks in PI, with special emphasis on the DMN, may lay grounds to better understanding of the cognitive arousal experienced by PI patients and might help to further improve the clinical management of insomnia.

Distraction decreases prefrontal oxygenation: A NIRS study

When near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used to measure emotion-related cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in the prefrontal cortex regions, the functional distinction of CBF changes is often difficult because NIRS is unable to measure neural activity in deeper brain regions that play major roles in emotional processing. The CBF changes could represent cognitive control of emotion and emotional responses to emotional materials. Supposing that emotion-related CBF changes in the prefrontal cortex regions during distraction are emotional responses, we examined whether oxygenated hemoglobin (oxyHb) decreases. Attention-demanding tasks cause blood flow decreases, and we thus compared the effects of visually paced tapping with different tempos, on distraction. The results showed that the oxyHb level induced by emotional stimulation decreased with fast-tempo tapping significantly more than slow-tempo tapping in ventral medial prefrontal cortex regions. Moreover, a Global-Local task following tapping showed significantly greater local-minus-global response time (RT) difference scores in the fast- and mid-tempo condition compared with those in the slow-tempo, suggesting an increased attentional focus, and decreased negative emotion. The overall findings indicate that oxyHb changes in a relatively long distraction task, as measured by NIRS, are associated with emotional responses, and oxyHb can be decreased by successfully performing attention-demanding distraction tasks.

Visualization of Brain Activation During Attention-Demanding Tasks Using Cognitive Signal Processing

Attention is the primary cognitive process to induce a response to a stimulus. The present study aims at evaluating the activation of different brain regions while performing an attention requiring task. The analysis is achieved with the help of electroencephalography (EEG) recorded simultaneously during the entire period of execution of task. The relative theta and gamma power were significantly higher (p=0.05) during task when compared to rest, whereas in alpha band the relative power was significantly higher (p=0.05) during rest when compared to task. Event related synchronization (ERS) and Event Related Desynchronization (ERD) in relative theta power and relative alpha power respectively was observed particularly in the parietal electrodes (associated with attention). Theta synchronisation and alpha desynchronization is associated with good performance further supported by the task performance with minimal errors. These event-related changes helped sustain attention and visualization of the activated brain regions was accomplished for a better depiction of the findings.

Procedural learning and its consolidation in autism spectrum disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show altered learning and memory. A number of recent studies have debated whether procedural learning in ASD is intact or not. Our aim was to further assess the question of whether the implicit, non-conscious form of procedural learning in ASD children is intact or not, furthermore, how shifts towards a more explicit, attention-demanding task setting can alter this performance. We administered a modified version of the Alternating Serial Reaction Time (ASRT) Task to children with ASD and IQ- and age-matched typically developing (TD) children. The task consisted of alternating blocks of cued (explicit) and uncued (implicit probe) blocks, and was repeated after a 16-hour delay. We found that ASD and TD children showed similar sequence-specific learning in cued explicit blocks, however, on the uncued probe blocks ASD children performed better compared to TD children. After the 16-hour delay both groups showed retention of the previously acquired knowledge. Finally, when we investigated the performance in different parts of the blocks, we found that ASD children did not show an effect of fatigue by the second part of the blocks. Our results suggest that children with ASD have increased implicit procedural learning skills compared to TD children. Differences in cued (explicit) and uncued (implicit) settings indicate that children with ASD are not affected by the lack of explicit instructions in probe blocks, suggesting a resistance for changes in task settings. These findings can help in a more thorough planning of cognitive therapeutic setups for ASD children.

Cognitive capacity and smartphone dual-task gait measurement

Walking and cognitive function are interrelated, and thus normal control of gait is perturbed by cognitive impairment. Changes in gait, as measured by quantitative analysis, can be a useful mechanism for detecting early indicators of cognitive decline. Observing changes in gait in the dual-task paradigm, i.e. when the subject walks while performing an attention-demanding task, can be a more sensitive measure. In the study reported in this paper, we developed a mobile application to perform quantitative gait assessment in the single and dual-task condition, using a smartphone’s built in sensor system. We show that the gait parameters, as measured by a mobile device, are significantly related to the corresponding parameters reported by a gold-standard motion capture system. We also demonstrate that this approach may be comparable to previously validated assessments of cognition and executive functioning. Mobile technologies offer a platform for sensitive assessment of changes in cognitive function through gait analysis in dual-task conditions. This methodology opens the way for more frequent assessments of cognition, as part of physiotherapy and rehabilitation practice.

Developmental improvement in strategies to maintain verbal information in working memory

Although it has been proposed that maintenance of verbal information in adults’ working memory relies on two strategies, articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing, little is known about the interplay of these strategies in children. To examine strategy changes around the age of seven, children were asked to maintain digits during a retention interval introduced between encoding and recall. In Experiment 1, this interval was either unfilled in a delayed span task or filled with an attention-demanding task in a Brown-Peterson task. This concurrent task was either silent or aloud to vary the availability of rehearsal. Experiment 2 introduced variation in the attentional demand of the concurrent task, and an independent concurrent articulation. As predicted, recall performance was better in older children, but was reduced under concurrent articulation or when attention was less available, bringing further evidence in favor of two maintenance strategies. Moreover, the measure of the availability of attention for refreshing was correlated with recall performance in eight- and seven-year-olds, though only when rehearsal was impeded for seven-year-olds, but it did not correlate with six-year-olds’ recall. This could suggest that rehearsal is the default strategy in young children who can adaptively switch to refreshing when articulatory processes are unavailable.

The Attentional Dependence of Emotion Cognition Is Variable with the Competing Task.

The relationship between emotion and attention has fascinated researchers for decades. Many previous studies have used eye-tracking, ERP, MEG, and fMRI to explore this issue but have reached different conclusions: some researchers hold that emotion cognition is an automatic process and independent of attention, while some others believed that emotion cognition is modulated by attentional resources and is a type of controlled processing. The present research aimed to investigate this controversy, and we hypothesized that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition is variable with the competing task. Eye-tracking technology and a dual-task paradigm were adopted, and subjects’ attention was manipulated to fixate at the central task to investigate whether subjects could detect the emotional faces presented in the peripheral area with a decrease or near-absence of attention. The results revealed that when the peripheral task was emotional face discrimination but the central attention-demanding task was different, subjects performed well in the peripheral task, which means that emotional information can be processed in parallel with other stimuli, and there may be a specific channel in the human brain for processing emotional information. However, when the central and peripheral tasks were both emotional face discrimination, subjects could not perform well in the peripheral task, indicating that the processing of emotional information required attentional resources and that it is a type of controlled processing. Therefore, we concluded that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition varied with the competing task.

Functional Synergy Between Postural and Visual Behaviors When Performing a Difficult Precise Visual Task in Upright Stance.

Previous works usually report greater postural stability in precise visual tasks (e.g., gaze-shift tasks) than in stationary-gaze tasks. However, existing cognitive models do not fully support these results as they assume that performing an attention-demanding task while standing would alter postural stability because of the competition of attention between the tasks. Contrary to these cognitive models, attentional resources may increase to create a synergy between visual and postural brain processes to perform precise oculomotor behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated a difficult searching task and a control free-viewing task. The precise visual task required the 16 young participants to find a target in densely furnished images. The free-viewing task consisted of looking at similar images without searching anything. As expected, the participants exhibited significantly lower body displacements (linear, angular) and a significantly higher cognitive workload in the precise visual task than in the free-viewing task. Most important, our exploration showed functional synergies between visual and postural processes in the searching task, that is, significant negative relationships showing lower head and neck displacements to reach more expended zones of fixation. These functional synergies seemed to involve a greater attentional demand because they were not significant anymore when the cognitive workload was controlled (partial correlations). In the free-viewing task, only significant positive relationships were found and they did not involve any change in cognitive workload. An alternative cognitive model and its potential subtended neuroscientific circuit are proposed to explain the supposedly cognitively grounded functional nature of vision-posture synergies in precise visual tasks.

The role of visual stimuli on standing posture in children with bilateral cerebral palsy.

BackgroundIn children with bilateral cerebral palsy (CP) maintaining a standing position can be difficult. The fundamental motor task of standing independently is achieved by an interaction between the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular systems. In CP, the motor disorders are commonly accompanied by sensory and perceptual disturbances. Our aims were to examine the influence of visual stimuli on standing posture in relation to standing ability.MethodsThree dimensional motion analysis with surface electromyography was recorded to describe body position, body movement, and muscle activity during three standing tasks: in a self-selected position, while blindfolded, and during an attention-demanding task. Participants were twenty-seven typically-developing (TD) children and 36 children with bilateral CP, of which 17 required support for standing (CP-SwS) and 19 stood without support (CP-SwoS).ResultsAll children with CP stood with a more flexed body position than the TD children, even more pronounced in the children in CP-SwS. While blindfolded, the CP-SwS group further flexed their hips and knees, and increased muscle activity in knee extensors. In contrast, the children in CP-SwoS maintained the same body position but increased calf muscle activity. During the attention-demanding task, the children in CP-SwoS stood with more still head and knee positions and with less muscle activity.ConclusionsVisual input was important for children with CP to maintain a standing position. Without visual input the children who required support dropped into a further crouched position. The somatosensory and vestibular systems alone could not provide enough information about the body position in space without visual cues as a reference frame. In the children who stood without support, an intensified visual stimulus enhanced the ability to maintain a quiet standing position. It may be that impairments in the sensory systems are major contributors to the difficulties to stand erect in children with CP.

THE IMPACT OF MUSIC-INDUCED AFFECT AND AROUSAL ON OLDER ADULTS' ATTENTION

Declines in attention can occur with both normal and pathologic aging conditions such as dementia (e.g., Belleville, Chertkow, & Gauthier, 2007). Existing literature shows that attention can be improved with training (e.g., Sohlberg & Mateer, 2001). Background music is an accessible and typically enjoyable tool that may exogenously facilitate attention and counteract some of the attentional declines in older adults who are healthy or in pre-clinical stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Two particular properties of a musical piece - (1) mode (i.e., major, minor, or atonal), and (2) tempo (i.e., stimulative or sedative) - influence affect, arousal, and cognitive function; These properties may interact with older adults' prioritized affective goals, ultimately enhancing or hindering cognitive performance on attention-demanding tasks (e.g., Husain, Thompson, & Schellenberg, 2002; Mather & Carstensen, 2005; Thayer, Hansen, Saus-Rose, & Johnson, 2009). Six musical pieces were selected to represent different combinations of mode and tempo. Older adults (i.e., 65 - 80 years-old; n = 22) complete the Multi-Source Interference Task assessing selective attention (MSIT; Bush & Shin, 2006) at baseline and under the six counterbalanced musical conditions. In each condition, participants self-report their motivation and effort, as well as their affect and arousal on the Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist (Thayer, 1986). MSIT performance (i.e., accuracy and reaction times) is analyzed in a repeated-measures ANCOVA, with MSIT performance and self-reported motivation and effort at baseline as covariates. Mediated regression analyses assess whether MSIT performance is mediated by arousal and/or affect. Results indicate which specific type of musical piece may counteract older adults' declines in selective attention. Implications are discussed and are relevant to personal and community selections of background music to facilitate older adults' performance on daily attention-demanding tasks.

Detection of Threats under Inattentional Blindness and Perceptual Load

Inattentional blindness refers to the failure to detect the salient unexpected stimuli in one’s visual field when performing an attention-demanding task. The present study examined the detection of threats in a static inattentional blindness paradigm. And the detection rates of evolutionary and ontogenetic threats were compared. Participants counted the number of color words from among three (low load) or six (high load) items presented in a circular array. On the last of six trials, an unexpected threatening/neutral illustration was presented in the center of the array along with the task stimuli. Participants detection of the illustration were thus measured and analyzed. The results suggested that: (1) the threatening stimuli, both evolutionary and ontogenetic, were detected more frequently than non-threatening stimuli; (2) the unexpected illustrations were identified more frequently under low-load condition than under high-load condition; (3) even under high-load situation, the threatening illustrations were more frequently identified than neutral ones. Threats are more likely to be detected under inattentional blindness and perceptual load.

Memory-driven attentional capture reveals the waxing and waning of working memory activation due to dual-task interference.

Previous studies have shown that information held in working memory (WM) actively or as a residue of previous processing can lead to attentional capture by corresponding stimuli in the environment. Here, we compared attentional capture by goal-driven and residual WM activation and examined how these effects are affected by dual-task interference. In two experiments, participants performed an animacy judgment task for a word that they did or did not have to remember for a later recognition test. The word was followed in half of the trials by an arithmetic task that served to disrupt the WM activation of the previously processed word. Subsequently, WM-driven capture was assessed by having participants perform a single-target rapid serial visual presentation task in which a line drawing corresponding to the word was presented shortly before a target. The results showed that the line drawing captured attention irrespective of the presence of the arithmetic task when the word had to be remembered. In comparison, the animacy judgment alone resulted in capture only when the arithmetic task was absent, and this effect was equally strong as the capture effect caused by a to-be-remembered word. Taken together, these findings show that although residual and goal-driven WM activation may be equally potent in guiding attentional selection, these two forms of WM activation differ in that residual activation is overwritten by an attention-demanding task, whereas goal-driven WM activation can lead to the reinstatement of a stimulus after performing such a task.