Automatic Attentional Capture Research Articles

The distinct effects of fearful and disgusting scenes on self-relevant face recognition

Self-face recognition denotes the process by which a person can recognize their own face by distinguishing it from another’s face. Although many research studies have explored the inhibition effect of negative information on self-relevant face processing, few researchers have examined whether negative scenes influence self-relevant face processing. Fearful and disgusting scenes are typical negative scenes, but little research to data has examined their discriminative effects on self-relevant face recognition. To investigate these issues, the current study explored the effect of negative scenes on self-relevant face recognition. In Study 1, 44 participants (20 men, 24 women) were asked to judge the orientation of a target face (self-face or friend-face) pictured in a negative or neutral scene, whereas 40 participants (19 men, 21 women) were asked to complete the same task in a fearful, disgusting, or neutral scene in Study 2. The results showed that negative scenes inhibited the speed of recognizing self-faces. Furthermore, the above effect of negative scenes on self-relevant face recognition occurred with fearful rather than disgusting scenes. Our findings suggest the distinct effects of fearful scenes and disgusting scenes on self-relevant face processing, which may be associated with the automatic attentional capture to negative scenes (especially fearful scenes) and the tendency to escape self-awareness.

Effect of Cognitive Processing Style on Attentional Blink during Analogue Trauma

Background: This study attempted to examine the impact of each cognitive processing style (bottom-up, top-down) on attention patterns following a traumatic experience by measuring attentional blink (AB).Methods: Participants were 37 university students with no direct experience of traffic accidents. They were randomly assigned to either a single-task (bottom-up processing) group or a dual-task (top-down processing) group, who performed the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) after watching an analogue trauma video. The correct response rate to target stimuli was then compared between groups based on stimulus type and stimulus presentation interval.Results: In the dual-task group, no significant differences were found. However, in the single-task group, a trend towards a decrease in the correct response rate to the target stimulus was observed 200 ms after the presentation of the traumatic stimulus (i.e., AB).Conclusions: This tendency can be explained by the phenomenon of automatic attentional capture by traumatic stimuli, suggesting a relationship between bottom-up processing and attentional bias.

How far can the self be extended? Automatic attention capture is triggered not only by the self-face.

The preferential processing of self-related information is thought to be driven by its high level of familiarity. However, some behavioral studies have shown that people may exhibit a preference for initially unfamiliar stimuli that have been associated with themselves arbitrarily. One of the key questions that needs to be addressed concerns the role of early attention in the prioritization of newly acquired information associated with the self. Another question is whether both highly familiar as well as new information referring to a subjectively significant person (i.e. close-other) benefits from preferential attentional processing. We aimed to tackle both questions by investigating the neural mechanisms involved in processing extremely familiar stimuli, like one's own face or the face of a close-other, as well as stimuli (abstract shapes) that were newly linked to each person. We used a dot-probe paradigm that allowed us to investigate the early stages of attentional prioritization. Our analysis of the N2pc component unveiled that attention was automatically captured by the self-face, a shape associated with oneself, and the face of the close person. However, a shape associated with the close-other did not elicit the same attentional response, as the N2pc was absent. Thus, both the self-face and information referring to the extended self (self-assigned shape, close-other's face) benefit from preferential early and automatic attentional processing.

Event-related potentials of food-induced blindness in the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm

Emotion-induced blindness is known as the impairment in the identification of targets that follow shortly after emotional distractors in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. Besides negative or erotic stimuli, food distractors have also been found to elicit a similar effect. This indicates an attentional bias for food stimuli in the temporal dimension of visual attention, which is highly relevant in the context of eating behaviour. So far, the neural mechanisms of this food-induced blindness are widely unknown. In the present study (N = 53), we investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to food distractors and non-food targets in a single-target RSVP task. Automatic capture of visual attention by task-irrelevant food distractors was evident in enhanced Distractor Negativity (N2) and Early Food Positivity (P1). However, food distractors did not elicit a P3b. Thus, apparently, not the encoding of food distractors in working memory but alternative attentional processes are responsible for the food-induced blindness. Reduced target P3b reflected errors in target identification but was unaffected by the preceding distractor. In contrast, target N2 was specifically reduced for unidentified targets preceded by food distractors. Presumably, the attentional capture of food distractors may have caused a reduction of target N2, thereby contributing to the impairment in target identification. However, future research is needed to confirm this assumption and bridge the gap between the food-induced blindness on the behavioural level and the attentional capture of food stimuli reflected in the distractor ERPs.

Automatic capture of attention by flicker

Visual motion captures attention, but little is known about the automaticity of these effects. Here, we tested if deviant flicker frequencies, as one form of motion, automatically capture attention. Observers searched for a vertical target among tilted distractors. Prior to the target display, a cue array of sinusoidally modulating (flickering) annuli, each surrounding one location of the subsequent target(-plus-distractors) display was presented for variable durations. Annuli either flickered all at 1 Hz (neutral condition, no-singleton cue), or a single annulus flickered at a unique frequency of 5 Hz, 10 Hz, or 15 Hz. The location of this singleton-frequency cue was uncorrelated with target location. Thus, we could measure benefits (target at cued location) and costs (target ≠ cued location) for cues of different frequencies and durations. The results showed that deviant flicker frequencies capture attention, as we observed benefits and costs, falsifying that nonspatial filtering accounted for the cueing effect. In line with automatic capture, cueing was effective in singleton (Experiment 1) and nonsingleton search tasks (Experiment 2), and is thus not dependent on (“top-down”) singleton detection mode. Moreover, analysis of results ruled out trial-by-trial “swapping” of flicker frequencies from preceding target to subsequent distractor locations. Results also revealed increasing cueing effects with higher cue flicker frequency and longer duration. This indicates a significantly longer period of automatic capture by sinusoidal flicker than the typical inhibition of return observed around 250 ms after the onset of uninformative static or single-transient cues.

Eating restraint is associated with reduced attentional capture by signals of valuable food reward

Previous paradigms used to examine attentional distraction by task-irrelevant food words and food images were not suited for the investigation of involuntary and automatic attentional capture. In the current experiments we adapted a well-established visual-search paradigm (with eye tracking) to investigate involuntary attentional capture by food and drink rewards. We first used a satiety procedure to manipulate relative preference for different food and drink outcomes (potato chips and water in Experiment 1 and popcorn and chocolate Smarties in Experiment 2). Participants then performed the visual-search task where a coloured distractor signalled on each trial which of the two food and drink rewards was available for successful identification of the target. The signalled reward was cancelled, however, if any eye gaze was registered on the distractor. Participants were therefore motivated to try and control the automatic orienting of attention towards cues signalling valuable outcomes, in order to earn those outcomes. In both experiments we found that attention was more often captured by the distractor signalling the valuable (non-sated) outcome, replicating previous studies using this paradigm with monetary rewards. We also found that those scoring high on eating restraint (as measured with the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire) were better at controlling reflexive orienting of attention to desirable food rewards. This paradigm offers a novel approach for understanding how reflexive attention and control relate to conflicts in everyday life around distracting food cues, and the moderating role of dietary restraint.

Selective attention to sound features mediates cross-modal activation of visual cortices

Contemporary schemas of brain organization now include multisensory processes both in low-level cortices as well as at early stages of stimulus processing. Evidence has also accumulated showing that unisensory stimulus processing can result in cross-modal effects. For example, task-irrelevant and lateralised sounds can activate visual cortices; a phenomenon referred to as the auditory-evoked contralateral occipital positivity (ACOP). Some claim this is an example of automatic attentional capture in visual cortices. Other results, however, indicate that context may play a determinant role. Here, we investigated whether selective attention to spatial features of sounds is a determining factor in eliciting the ACOP. We recorded high-density auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) while participants selectively attended and discriminated sounds according to four possible stimulus attributes: location, pitch, speaker identity or syllable. Sound acoustics were held constant, and their location was always equiprobable (50% left, 50% right). The only manipulation was to which sound dimension participants attended. We analysed the AEP data from healthy participants within an electrical neuroimaging framework. The presence of sound-elicited activations of visual cortices depended on the to-be-discriminated, goal-based dimension. The ACOP was elicited only when participants were required to discriminate sound location, but not when they attended to any of the non-spatial features. These results provide a further indication that the ACOP is not automatic. Moreover, our findings showcase the interplay between task-relevance and spatial (un)predictability in determining the presence of the cross-modal activation of visual cortices.

Automatic Attention Capture by Threatening, But Not by Semantically Incongruent Natural Scene Images.

Visual objects are typically perceived as parts of an entire visual scene, and the scene's context provides information crucial in the object recognition process. Fundamental insights into the mechanisms of context-object integration have come from research on semantically incongruent objects, which are defined as objects with a very low probability of occurring in a given context. However, the role of attention in processing of the context-object mismatch remains unclear, with some studies providing evidence in favor, but other against an automatic capture of attention by incongruent objects. Therefore, in the present study, 25 subjects completed a dot-probe task, in which pairs of scenes-congruent and incongruent or neutral and threatening-were presented as task-irrelevant distractors. Importantly, threatening scenes are known to robustly capture attention and thus were included in the present study to provide a context for interpretation of results regarding incongruent scenes. Using N2 posterior-contralateral ERP component as a primary measure, we revealed that threatening images indeed capture attention automatically and rapidly, but semantically incongruent scenes do not benefit from an automatic attentional selection. Thus, our results suggest that identification of the context-object mismatch is not preattentive.

Attending to emotional faces in the flanker task: Probably much less automatic than previously assumed.

Attention to emotional faces was tested in a series of 5 experiments using the flanker paradigm. Distraction and compatibility effects that were stronger for emotional compared to neutral faces were found in only one of the studies. No reliable differences were found between faces displaying different emotions. The data suggest that attentional capture of emotional faces depends on emotion being a task relevant feature, indicating that attention has to be intentionally allocated to emotional information for those effects to materialize. Our findings also indicate that attending to emotions due to task requirements is not a sufficient condition for an attentional bias towards emotional faces. Even within emotion classification tasks, we only found reliable attentional prioritizing of emotional faces when the position of the target stimulus varied across trials and had to be identified on the basis of an additional feature, thus rendering the processing of the flanker stimuli obligatory in the task. In sum, these findings indicate that automatic attentional capture by emotional faces is a highly conditional phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The resiliency of image memorability: A predictor of memory separate from attention and priming

Recent work has demonstrated there is a power within images to impact our later memories—an intrinsic stimulus memorability that influences memory behavior consistently across observers. This memorability is computed as explicitly reported memory performance on each image, and is significantly correlated from observer to observer. Interestingly, neuroimaging work has found that memorable versus forgettable images show distinct, early patterns within the brain even when participants are not performing an explicit memory task. Thus, a key question is whether memorability effects reflect a more automatic, bottom-up process, or are the result of top-down attentional processes. Further, how do bottom-up and top-down processes interact with stimulus memorability to influence ultimate memory performance? The current study explores these questions through the lens of four classical psychological phenomena shown to influence memory. First, a directed forgetting task shows that cognitive control is unable to override the effects of stimulus memorability. Second, an experiment manipulating depth of processing reveals a performance boost for memorable images regardless of the depth at which they are encoded. Third, results from a visual search experiment show that memorable images do not trigger automatic attentional capture, or pop-out. Finally, results from a repetition priming task demonstrate that memorability and priming are independent phenomena. In sum, memorability is an isolable phenomenon, occurring automatically, and resilient to top-down influence.

Emotional capture during emotion-induced blindness is not automatic

The present research used behavioral and event-related brain potentials (ERP) measures to determine whether emotional capture is automatic in the emotion-induced blindness (EIB) paradigm. The first experiment varied the priority of performing two concurrent tasks: identifying a negative or neutral picture appearing in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream of pictures and multiple object tracking (MOT). Results showed that increased attention to the MOT task resulted in decreased accuracy for identifying both negative and neutral target pictures accompanied by decreases in the amplitude of the P3b component. In contrast, the early posterior negativity (EPN) component elicited by negative pictures was unaffected by variations in attention. Similarly, there was a decrement in MOT performance for dual-task versus single task conditions but no effect of picture type (negative vs neutral) on MOT accuracy which isn't consistent with automatic emotional capture of attention. However, the MOT task might simply be insensitive to brief interruptions of attention. The second experiment used a more sensitive reaction time (RT) measure to examine this possibility. Results showed that RT to discriminate a gap appearing in a tracked object was delayed by the simultaneous appearance of to-be-ignored distractor pictures even though MOT performance was once again unaffected by the distractor. Importantly, the RT delay was the same for both negative and neutral distractors suggesting that capture was driven by physical salience rather than emotional salience of the distractors. Despite this lack of emotional capture, the EPN component, which is thought to reflect emotional capture, was still present. We suggest that the EPN doesn't reflect capture but rather downstream effects of attention, including object recognition. These results show that capture by emotional pictures in EIB can be suppressed when attention is engaged in another difficult task. The results have important implications for understanding capture effects in EIB.

Multivariate pattern analysis of the neural correlates of smoking cue attentional bias

The automatic capture of attention by drug cues, or attentional bias, is associated with craving and predicts future drug use. Despite its clinical significance, the neural bases of attentional bias to drug cues is not well understood. To address this gap, we undertook a neuroimaging investigation of the neural correlates of attentional bias towards smoking cues. Twenty-nine adults, including 14 active smokers and 15 non-smokers, completed a spatial cuing task during fMRI. A multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) decoded the neural responses to the brief presentation of smoking versus neutral images. These data were correlated with behavioral measures of attentional bias, which included analyses targeting the neural correlates of response facilitation and cue-related task interference. We detected a set of brain-behavioral correlates that were similar across both smokers and non-smokers, indicating a role for stimuli salience in the absence of nicotine conditioning in smoking cue attentional bias. However, multiple smoking-related modifications to the neural correlates of attentional bias and its components were also identified. For example, regions demonstrating smoking-related differences in the neural correlates of attentional bias included the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. Response facilitation effects of smoking were observed in the right orbitofrontal gyrus and bilateral middle temporal gyrus. Smoking-cue related task interference was related to smoking-related effects in the frontal eye fields. Our findings suggest that multiple cognitive, affective, and visual object recognition processes contribute to attentional bias towards smoking cues, and suggest multiple circuit modifications that may contribute to perpetuation of addiction.

Unconscious Detection of One’s Own Image

A key mechanism behind preferential processing of self-related information might be an early and automatic capture of attention. Therefore, the present study tested a hypothesis that one’s own face will attract bottom-up attention even without conscious identification. To test this, we used a dot-probe paradigm with electrophysiological recordings, in which participants (N = 18) viewed masked and unmasked pairs of faces (other, self) presented laterally. Analysis of the sensitivity measure d ′ indicated that faces were not consciously identified in the masked condition. A clear N2 posterior-contralateral (N2pc) component (a neural marker of attention shifts) was found in both the masked and unmasked conditions, revealing that one’s own face automatically captures attention when processed unconsciously. Therefore, our study (a) demonstrates that self-related information is boosted at an early (preconscious) stage of processing, (b) identifies further features (beyond simple physical ones) that cause automatic attention capture, and (c) provides further evidence for the dissociative nature of attention and consciousness.

The effect of mouth opening in emotional faces on subjective experience and the early posterior negativity amplitude

Previous studies have examined the role of the eye region in emotional expressions, but the mouth region is understudied. The main goal of this study was to examine how mouth opening in emotional faces affects subjective experience and early automatic attentional capture, as measured by the early posterior negativity (EPN) amplitude. Participants in two studies viewed angry, happy, and neutral faces with mouths open and closed while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Afterwards, participants indicated how unpleasant-pleasant (i.e., valence) and calming-arousing (i.e., arousal) each face made them feel. Angry and happy faces (and neutral faces to a lesser extent) with an open vs. closed mouth made observers feel more extreme valence and arousal. In addition, there generally was an EPN for angry and happy faces (and neutral faces to a lesser extent) with open vs. closed mouths, which suggests that emotional expressions with an open mouth capture early automatic attention more than expressions with a closed mouth. Finally, the effects of mouth opening were somewhat modulated by face gender, but not by observer gender. The current findings contribute to our knowledge of facial expressions and social interaction, but also have relevance for the growing fields of social robotics and digital animation.

Individual Differences in Attentional Capture by Pictures of Fear and Disgust as Indexed by Cardiac Responses

Abstract. Emotional stimuli automatically capture attention in ways that are relevant to the survival value of the stimuli. We have previously shown that individual differences in resting heart rate variability (HRV) were related to attentional capture by negative (fearful) and neutral distractors. However, different negative emotions such as fear and disgust may differentially capture attention. In the present study we investigated the effect of automatic attention capture by disgust and fear stimuli on behavioral and phasic heart rate responses as well as its relationship with resting heart rate variability (HRV). Twenty-eight participants (14 men) were divided into two groups based on their resting HRV. Phasic cardiac responses as well as reaction times and errors on a digit categorization task were assessed with disgust, fear, and neutral pictures as distractors. In the high HRV group disgusting distractors produced the strongest interference on the ongoing cognitive task indicated by more errors and longer reaction times as well as a deeper cardiac deceleration compared to fearful or neutral distractors. In contrast, the low HRV group showed faster reaction times to fear evoking pictures, whereas their heart rate responses and number of errors did not distinguish between the three emotional categories. Our results suggest that high HRV participants showed the emotional context appropriate responses while low HRV participants seem to be hypervigilant to fear.

Gender Differences in the Automatic Attention to Romantic Vs Sexually Explicit Stimuli

IntroductionGender differences in sexual responses and cognitive and emotional processing to romantic and sexually explicit stimuli have been reported. However, these differences seem to depend on the automaticity of the task that is being used, thus suggesting that gender differences may be the result of specific mechanisms rather than a generalized effect. AimTo expand previous basic processes research on gender differences to romantic vs sexually explicit stimuli, focusing on potential differentiating mechanisms influencing male and female sexual responses, we aim to investigate gender differences on automatic attention to sexual stimuli, and to test its relationship with sexual excitation proneness. Methods26 women and 30 men (heterosexual) performed an automatic attention task, in which romantic and sexually explicit stimuli were presented as distractors, that is, stimuli to be ignored, while a concurrent letter discrimination task was performed, followed by a self-report task assessing subjective sexual and emotional responses to the stimuli. Main Outcome MeasuresPercentage of accuracy and response times (RTs) to discriminate the target letters were used as markers of automatic attention, with lower accuracy and longer RTs reflecting a higher degree of attentional capture by the distractor stimuli (romantic and sexually explicit). Participants completed self-report ratings on emotional valence, general arousal, and sexual arousal toward romantic and sexually explicit stimuli. They further reported on their sexual excitation proneness. ResultsFindings revealed that sexually explicit pictures yielded more automatic attention capture. However, this effect was superseded by pornography consumption, which likely reflects a habituation mechanism. Also, data revealed gender-x type of picture interaction effects only at the self-report task, with men rating sexually explicit stimuli as more sexually exciting, and women rating these stimuli as less pleasant. No relationship was found between automatic attention proxies and sexual excitation proneness. Clinical TranslationWhile therapeutic strategies are used as tools to improve attention to sexual stimuli (and, hence, increase sexual arousal), the current findings suggest that the specific pathways by which attention influences sexual response are still to be established. Also, gender differences on the subjective appraisal of sex stimuli suggest that therapeutic approaches, consisting on exposure techniques, must recognize gender specificities. Strengths & LimitationsTo our knowledge, this is the first study applying an automatic attention task to the field of sex research, thus adding new inputs to the topic of attention, gender differences, and sexual response. However, there is very limited research in the field of automatic attention, which may limit the interpretation of our findings, at the moment. ConclusionWhereas both genders do not seem to differ in automatic attention toward romantic and sexually explicit stimuli, their responses do differ in their subjective appraisal of the stimuli. Furthermore, despite theoretical assumptions on the relationship between attention and sexual response, automatic attention seemed not to be related to sexual excitation proneness. Carvalho J, Czop O, Rocha M, et al. Gender differences in the automatic attention to romantic vs sexually explicit stimuli. J Sex Med 2018;15:1083–1092.

EEG measures of brain activity reveal that smoking-related images capture the attention of smokers outside of awareness

The capture of attention by substance-related stimuli in dependent users is a major factor in the maintenance and/or cessation of substance use. The present study examined the automaticity of this process in smokers, as well as the effects of craving. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of spatial-attention allocation (N2pc) and extended target processing (SPCN) were isolated during an object-substitution masking (OSM) task that disrupted the perceptual visibility of smoking-related and office-related targets. Each participant completed two experimental sessions: one in which they were deprived of nicotine for a period of several hours prior to the session (craving), and one before which they were allowed to smoke (non-craving). Results were consistent with an account of automatic attentional capture by smoking-related images outside of awareness, with masked trials yielding a selective enhancement of the attention-sensitive N2pc in response to these images, but in the absence of a corresponding behavioral enhancement on those trials. Finally, the manipulation of craving appeared to increase the overall task demand, yielding an enhancement of the SPCN component across target type and masking conditions. Together, these results suggest that smoking-related visual stimuli in the environment can capture the attention of smokers outside of awareness, in what seems to be an automatic process.

Chronic cannabis use and attentional bias: Extended attentional capture to cannabis cues

IntroductionA significant proportion of chronic cannabis users experience occupational, social, and psychological problems thought to reflect, in part, cannabis-related cognitive and emotional attentional biases. The emotional attentional blink (EAB) is a unique test of attentional bias that assesses automatic responses, cue-detection failures, and rapid and temporally extended biases. Using the EAB, we tested users' and non-users' attentional biases and how cannabis exposure correlates with these attentional biases. MethodsForty-eight regular cannabis users and 51 non-users completed demographic, psychological, and cannabis-use reports and two EAB target-detection experiments. Each experiment comprised 160 trials. Each trial included a rapid serial visual presentation of images with one of four types of distractor images (cannabis, generically positive, neutral, or scrambled) preceding the target image. Distractor images were presented 200ms (Lag 2) or 800ms (Lag 8) before the target in Experiment 1 and 200ms (Lag 2) or 500ms (Lag 5) before the target in Experiment 2. ResultsChronic cannabis users exhibited exaggerated, immediate attentional bias (Lag 2) and exaggerated, extended attentional bias (Lag 5) compared to non-users. The intensity of cannabis-use (grams per week) correlated with more errors at the extended attentional bias durations (Lags 5 and 8). ConclusionsOur results represent novel evidence of automatic attentional capture consistent with an exaggerated “wanting” motive in models of addiction. Our unique evidence of temporally extended attentional biases is consistent with attentional disengagement deficits associated with chronic cannabis use.

ERP components associated with an indirect emotional stop signal task in healthy and depressed participants

Recent research has provided evidence to suggest that emotional stimuli may interfere with response inhibition, due to automatic capture of attention. Whilst previous studies have provided data regarding changes to event-related potentials (ERPs) in emotional Go/NoGo tasks, few studies to-date have utilized an emotional stop signal task (SST). Thirty-five participants were included in the study; 21 healthy controls and 14 depressed. An indirect emotional SST was employed, which consisted of the presentation of neutral, negative or positive visual images. The primary two-choice reaction time task required responding to frame colour (blue or green), whilst in 33% of trials an auditory stop signal was presented, with stop signal delay adjusted according to an adaptive tracking procedure. ERPs associated with both the primary visual task and the auditory SST were analysed using temporal principle components analysis (tPCA). In the primary task, reaction times were found to be slower for negative compared to neutral images. Stop signal reaction time (SSRT) was not found to be affected by image category or depression status. However, the NoGo-N2 component was found to be reduced for positive images, whilst the NoGo-P3 component was reduced for both positive and negative images in comparison to neutral images in the stop signal task. This effect was found to be enhanced for the depressed participants, indicating that inhibitory processing in the presence of positive stimuli may be inhibited to a greater extent in depressed individuals than in healthy controls. These findings provide further evidence for the ability of emotional valence and major depressive disorder to influence inhibitory processing.

SELECTIVE ATTENTION IN AGE-ASSOCIATED MEMORY IMPAIRMENT: AN ERP STUDY IN VISUAL SEARCH

AbstractAge-Associated memory impairment (AAMI) may be related to a decline in selective attention. In this work, the potential attentional capture by task-irrelevant stimuli was examined in older adults with AAMI compared to healthy older adults using event-related potentials (ERPs).A visual search task was employed, in which the participants had to detect the presence of a target stimulus that differed from distractors by orientation. To explore the automatic attentional capture, an irrelevant distractor stimulus defined by color was also presented without previous knowledge of the subjects. The N2pc component of ERPs, an electrophysiological indicator of the allocation of attentional resources, was analysed.The results indicated that in both groups the N2pc component was present for target stimuli but not for task-irrelevant color stimuli. In addition, the latency of N2pc for targets was significantly delayed in AAMI patients compared to controls, although no differences in the amplitude of the component were found.The delay in N2pc latency in AAMI subjects suggested they require more time than healthy seniors to shift their visuospatial attention onto the task-relevant information. However, the lack of significant differences between the groups in N2pc mean amplitude and scalp distribution suggested that the amount of attentional resources allocated to the target did not differ between older adult with and without memory impairment. The lack of N2pc component for irrelevant non-target stimuli indicated that the mechanism of top-down suppression of task-irrelevant information is preserved.Funding: Xunta de Galicia (GPC2014/082)