Goal-driven Processes Research Articles

Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Attention Bias Towards Pain: Evidence From a Drift-Diffusion Model and Event-Related Potentials

Although combining computational modeling with event-related potentials (ERPs) can precisely characterize neurocognitive processes involved in attention bias, it has yet to be applied in the context of pain. Here, a hierarchical drift-diffusion model (DDM) along with ERPs was used to characterize the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying attention bias towards pain. A spatial cueing paradigm was adopted, in which the locations of targets were either validly or invalidly predicted by spatial cues related to pain or nonpain signals. DDM-derived nondecision time was shorter for targets validly cued by pain signals than by nonpain signals, thus indicating speeded attention engagement towards pain; drift rate was slower for targets invalidly cued by pain signals than by nonpain signals, reflecting slower attention disengagement from pain. The facilitated engagement towards pain was partially mediated by the enhanced lateralization of cue-evoked N1 amplitudes, which relate to the bottom-up, stimulus-driven processes of detecting threatening signals. On the other hand, the retarded disengagement from pain was partially mediated by the enhanced target-evoked anterior N2 amplitudes, which relate to the top-down, goal-driven processes of conflict monitoring and behavior regulating. These results demonstrated that engagement and disengagement components of pain-related attention bias are governed by distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. However, it remains possible that the findings are not pain-specific, but rather, are related to threat or aversiveness in general. This deserves to be further examined by adding a control stimulus modality. PerspectiveThis study characterized the neurocognitive processes involved in attention bias towards pain through combining a hierarchical DDM and ERPs. Our results revealed distinctive neurocognitive mechanisms underlying engagement and disengagement components of attention bias. Future studies are warranted to examine whether our findings are pain-specific or not.

The subcortical and neurochemical organization of the ventral and dorsal attention networks

Attention is a core cognitive function that filters and selects behaviourally relevant information in the environment. The cortical mapping of attentional systems identified two segregated networks that mediate stimulus-driven and goal-driven processes, the Ventral and the Dorsal Attention Networks (VAN, DAN). Deep brain electrophysiological recordings, behavioral data from phylogenetic distant species, and observations from human brain pathologies challenge purely corticocentric models. Here, we used advanced methods of functional alignment applied to resting-state functional connectivity analyses to map the subcortical architecture of the Ventral and Dorsal Attention Networks. Our investigations revealed the involvement of the pulvinar, the superior colliculi, the head of caudate nuclei, and a cluster of brainstem nuclei relevant to both networks. These nuclei are densely connected structural network hubs, as revealed by diffusion-weighted imaging tractography. Their projections establish interrelations with the acetylcholine nicotinic receptor as well as dopamine and serotonin transporters, as demonstrated in a spatial correlation analysis with a normative atlas of neurotransmitter systems. This convergence of functional, structural, and neurochemical evidence provides a comprehensive framework to understand the neural basis of attention across different species and brain diseases.

Dynamic inhibitory control prevents salience-driven capture of visual attention.

The salience-driven selection theory is comprised of three main tenets: (a) the most salient stimulus within a monitored region of the visual field captures attention, (b) the only way to prevent salience-driven distraction is by narrowly focusing attention elsewhere, and (c) all other goal-driven processes are possible only after the most salient item has been attended. Evidence for and against this theory has been provided from two experimental paradigms. Here, event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in a novel Go/No-Go paradigm disconfirmed all three of tenets of the theory. Participants were instructed to search cyan-item displays for a salient orientation singleton (Go trials) and to ignore randomly intermixed yellow-item displays that could also contain an orientation singleton (No-Go trials). ERP components associated with attentional orienting (posterior contralateral N2; N2pc), distractor suppression (distractor positivity; PD), and stimulus relevance (P2a) were isolated to test predictions stemming from the salience-driven selection theory. On No-Go trials, the salient oddball elicited a PD rather than an N2pc, indicating that it was suppressed, not attended. Moreover, a P2a emerged before the N2pc on Go trials, demonstrating that observers first evaluated the global color of each display and then decided to search for the oddball (Go trials) or to ignore it (No-Go trials). We conclude that goal-driven processes can lead to the prevention of salience-driven attention capture by salient visual objects within the attentional window. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Reduction of temporal uncertainty facilitates stimulus-driven processes in spatial selection

Previous studies have shown that the reduction of temporal uncertainty facilitates target selection in visual search. We investigated whether this beneficial effect is caused by an effect on stimulus-driven processes or on goal-driven processes in spatial selection. To discriminate between these processes, we employed a visual search task in which participants searched for a shape target while ignoring a color singleton distractor. As an index of stimulus-driven processes, we measured the N2pc evoked by the singleton distractor (ND). As indices of goal-driven processes, we measured the N2pc evoked by the target (NT) and the distractor positivity (PD) evoked by the singleton distractor, respectively. We observed that reducing temporal uncertainty modulated the amplitude of ND and the onset latency of the NT, but did not modulate the amplitude of the PD. These results are consistent with the view that a reduction of temporal uncertainty influences non-selective, stimulus-driven processes in spatial selection.

Atomoxetine modulates the contribution of low-level signals during free viewing of natural images in rhesus monkeys

Visuo-spatial attentional orienting is fundamental to selectively process behaviorally relevant information, depending on both low-level visual attributes of stimuli in the environment and higher-level factors, such as goals, expectations and prior knowledge. Growing evidence suggests an impact of the locus-cœruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in attentional orienting that depends on taskcontext. Nonetheless, most of previous studies used visual displays encompassing a target and various distractors, often preceded by cues to orient the attentional focus. This emphasizes the contribution of goal-driven processes, at the expense of other factors related to the stimulus content. Here, we aimed to determine the impact of NE on attentional orienting in more naturalistic conditions, using complex images and without any explicit task manipulation. We tested the effects of atomoxetine (ATX) injections, a NE reuptake inhibitor, on four monkeys during free viewing of images belonging to three categories: landscapes, monkey faces and scrambled images. Analyses of the gaze exploration patterns revealed, first, that the monkeys spent more time on each fixation under ATX compared to the control condition, regardless of the image content. Second, we found that, depending on the image content, ATX modulated the impact of low-level visual salience on attentional orienting. This effect correlated with the effect of ATX on the number and duration of fixations. Taken together, our results demonstrate that ATX adjusts the contribution of salience on attentional orienting depending on the image content, indicative of its role in balancing the role of stimulus-driven and top-down control during free viewing of complex stimuli.

Testing a goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat.

Attention has long been characterized within prominent models as reflecting a competition between goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes. It remains unclear, however, how involuntary attentional capture by affective stimuli, such as threat-laden content, fits into such models. Although such effects were traditionally thought to reflect stimulus-driven processes, recent research has increasingly implicated a critical role of goal-driven processes. Here we test an alternative goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat using an experimental manipulation of goal-driven attention. To this end we combined the classic contingent capture and emotion-induced blink paradigms in an RSVP task with both positive or threatening target search goals. Across 6 experiments, positive and threat distractors were presented in peripheral, parafoveal, and central locations. Across all distractor locations we found that involuntary attentional capture by irrelevant threat distractors could be induced via the adoption of a search goal for a threatening category; adopting a goal for a positive category conversely led to capture only by positive stimuli. Our findings provide direct experimental evidence for a causal role of voluntary goals in involuntary capture by irrelevant threat stimuli, and hence demonstrate the plausibility of a top-down account of this phenomenon. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to current cognitive models of attention and clinical disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

How do drivers recall positive and negative driving events? A quantitative approach to analysing driving diaries

Whilst diary studies are often analysed in a qualitative manner, quantitative methods which analyse the percentage of different types of language used in diary entries, now exist. From a driving perspective, this could arguably tell us more about the underlying psychological processes occurring when drivers reflect on their on-road experiences. As part of a larger project, the current study used a quantitative method of language analysis, known as word count analysis, to compare driver diaries in which positive and negative driving events were reflected upon. Results suggested that when describing positive events, drivers discuss them with more elaborate and descriptive language and focus on certainty and goal-driven processes. Negative events, however, had more of a social focus as indicated by an increased use of function words. These findings provide insights into the ways in which positive and negative driving events may be appraised. Additionally, drivers used more words indicating control and reward when describing positive driving events; this is discussed in consideration of how word count analyses can provide further insight into psychological process associated with emotion, such as appraisals.

Endogenous and Exogenous Attention in Alzheimer Type of Dementia: Effect of Target Position

Endogenous attention (EnA) is an ability in goal-driven processes, controlled by top-down mechanisms and exogenous attention (ExA) is an ability in stimulus-driven processes, controlled by bottomup mechanisms. In the present research, it was aimed to investigate in Alzheimer's disease (AD) the EnA and ExA processes in relation to target position (right/left) by using the Spatial Cueing Paradigm (SCP). The study was conducted with the participants of 65-90 year age range, consisting of 14 female and 14 male (n=28) participants diagnosed with AD and 12 female and 12 male (n=24) healthy volunteers as controls. The group variable (AD, Control) was tested on the intergroup basis; and the attention type (EnA, ExA), trial type (valid /VT+ and invalid/ VT-) and the target position (left/right) variables were tested on the intra-subject basis (within subject design). Two separate factorial ANOVAs were conducted for mean reaction time and accuracy measures obtained from SCP. In comparison to the control group, the AD group participants gave slow and wrong reactions to stimuli for EnA and ExA. The AD group responses were faster in the VT+s and more accurate in the VT-s to stimuli on the left as compared to those on the right; and the responses of AD patients to the stimuli on the left as compared to those on the right was more accurate in VT-s under ExA condition. AD causes impairment of EnA and ExA. Faster reactions by AD participants to the target on the left in VT+s and more accurate reactions to the target on the left in VT-s are in agreement with reports in the literature on the lateralization of visual-spatial attention (VSA) in the right hemisphere. In this study, also in agreement with previous reports, lateralization in AD was noted in favour of the stimuli on the left in ExA.

Is the voice an auditory face? An ALE meta-analysis comparing vocal and facial emotion processing.

This meta-analysis compares the brain structures and mechanisms involved in facial and vocal emotion recognition. Neuroimaging studies contrasting emotional with neutral (face: N = 76, voice: N = 34) and explicit with implicit emotion processing (face: N = 27, voice: N = 20) were collected to shed light on stimulus and goal-driven mechanisms, respectively. Activation likelihood estimations were conducted on the full data sets for the separate modalities and on reduced, modality-matched data sets for modality comparison. Stimulus-driven emotion processing engaged large networks with significant modality differences in the superior temporal (voice-specific) and the medial temporal (face-specific) cortex. Goal-driven processing was associated with only a small cluster in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for voices but not faces. Neither stimulus- nor goal-driven processing showed significant modality overlap. Together, these findings suggest that stimulus-driven processes shape activity in the social brain more powerfully than goal-driven processes in both the visual and the auditory domains. Yet, whereas faces emphasize subcortical emotional and mnemonic mechanisms, voices emphasize cortical mechanisms associated with perception and effortful stimulus evaluation (e.g. via subvocalization). These differences may be due to sensory stimulus properties and highlight the need for a modality-specific perspective when modeling emotion processing in the brain.

Temporal course of implicit emotion regulation during a Priming-Identify task: an ERP study

Implicit emotion regulation defined as goal-driven processes modulates emotion experiences and responses automatically without awareness. However, the temporal course of implicit emotion regulation is not clear. To address these issues, we adopted a new Priming-identify task (PI task) to manipulate implicit emotion regulation directly and observed the changes of early (N170), middle (early posterior negativity, EPN), and late event-related potentials (ERPs) components (late positivity potentials, LPP) under the different implicit emotion regulation conditions. The behavioral results indicated that the PI task manipulated subjective emotion experience effectively by priming emotion regulation goals. The ERP results found that implicit emotion regulation induced more negative N170 without altering the EPN and the LPP amplitudes, indicating that implicit emotion regulation occured automatically in the early perceptual stage not in the late selective attention stage of emotion processing. The correlation analysis also found the enlarged N170 was associated with decreased negative emotion subjective rating, suggesting that the N170 was probably an effective index of implicit emotion regulation. These observations imply that implicit emotion regulation probabbly occurs in the early stage of emotion processing automatically without consciousness.

A Cognitive Model of Psychological Resilience

Resilience is considered to be the process by which individuals demonstrate more positive outcomes than would be expected, given the nature of the adversity experienced. We propose that a cognitive approach has the potential to guide studies investigating the relationships between adversity, stress, and resilience. We outline a preliminary cognitive model of resilience in order to facilitate the application of cognitive approaches to the investigation of resilience in the face of adversity. We argue that the situationally appropriate application of flexibility or rigidity in affective-cognitive systems is a key element in promoting resilient responses. We propose that this mapping of cognitive processing can be conceptualised as being undertaken by an overarching mapping system, which serves to integrate information from a variety of sources, including the current situation, prior experience, as well as more conscious and goal-driven processes. We propose that a well-functioning mapping system is an integral part of the cognitive basis for resilience to adversity. Our preliminary model is intended to provide an initial theoretical framework to guide research on the development of cognitive functions that are considered to be important in the resilience process.

Thinking and Action: A Cognitive Perspective on Self-Regulation during Endurance Performance.

Self-regulation reflects an individual's efforts to bring behavior and thinking into line with often consciously desired goals. During endurance activity, self-regulation requires an athlete to balance their speed or power output appropriately to achieve an optimal level of performance. Considering that both behavior and thinking are core elements of self-regulation, this article provides a cognitive perspective on the processes required for effective pace-regulation during endurance performance. We also integrate this viewpoint with physiological and performance outcomes during activity. As such, evidence is presented to suggest that what an athlete thinks about has an important influence on effort perceptions, physiological outcomes, and, consequently, endurance performance. This article also provides an account of how an athlete might control their cognition and focus attention during an endurance event. We propose that effective cognitive control during performance requires both proactive, goal-driven processes and reactive, stimulus-driven processes. In addition, the role of metacognition—or thinking about thinking—in pace-regulation will also be considered. Metacognition is an essential component of self-regulation and its primary functions are to monitor and control the thoughts and actions required for task completion. To illustrate these processes in action, a metacognitive framework of attentional focus and cognitive control is applied to an endurance performance setting: specifically, Bradley Wiggins' successful 2015 Hour record attempt in cycling. Finally, future perspectives will consider the potentially deleterious effects of the sustained cognitive effort required during prolonged and strenuous endurance tasks.

Finding the balance between capture and control: Oculomotor selection in early deaf adults

Previous work investigating the consequence of bilateral deafness on attentional selection suggests that experience-dependent changes in this population may result in increased automatic processing of stimulus-driven visual information (e.g., saliency). However, adaptive behavior also requires observers to prioritize goal-driven information relevant to the task at hand. In order to investigate whether auditory deprivation alters the balance between these two components of attentional selection, we assessed the time-course of overt visual selection in deaf adults. Twenty early-deaf adults and twenty hearing controls performed an oculomotor additional singleton paradigm. Participants made a speeded eye-movement to a unique orientation target, embedded among homogenous non-targets and one additional unique orientation distractor that was more, equally or less salient than the target. Saliency was manipulated through color. For deaf participants proficiency in sign language was assessed. Overall, results showed that fast initiated saccades were saliency-driven, whereas later initiated saccades were goal-driven. However, deaf participants were overall slower than hearing controls at initiating saccades and also less captured by task-irrelevant salient distractors. The delayed oculomotor behavior of deaf adults was not explained by any of the linguistic measures acquired. Importantly, a multinomial model applied to the data revealed a comparable evolution over time of the underlying saliency- and goal-driven processes between the two groups, confirming the crucial role of saccadic latencies in determining the outcome of visual selection performance. The present findings indicate that prioritization of saliency-driven information is not an unavoidable phenomenon in deafness. Possible neural correlates of the documented behavioral effect are also discussed.

Embodied language comprehension: Encoding-based and goal-driven processes.

Theories of embodied language comprehension have proposed that language is understood through perceptual simulation of the sensorimotor characteristics of its meaning. Strong support for this claim requires demonstration of encoding-based activation of sensorimotor representations that is distinct from task-related or goal-driven processes. Participants in 3 eye-tracking experiments were presented with triplets of either numbers or object and animal names. In Experiment 1, participants indicated whether the size of the referent of the middle object or animal name was in between the size of the 2 outer items. In Experiment 2, the object and animal names were encoded for an immediate recognition memory task. In Experiment 3, participants completed the same comparison task of Experiment 1 for both words and numbers. During the comparison tasks, word and number decision times showed a symbolic distance effect, such that response time was inversely related to the size difference between the items. A symbolic distance effect was also observed for animal and object encoding times in cases where encoding time likely reflected some goal-driven processes as well. When semantic size was irrelevant to the task (Experiment 2), it had no effect on word encoding times. Number encoding times showed a numerical distance priming effect: Encoding time increased with numerical difference between items. Together these results suggest that while activation of numerical magnitude representations is encoding-based as well as goal-driven, activation of size information associated with words is goal-driven and does not occur automatically during encoding. This conclusion challenges strong theories of embodied cognition which claim that language comprehension consists of activation of analog sensorimotor representations irrespective of higher level processes related to context or task-specific goals.

Embodied language comprehension: Encoding-based and goal-driven processes.

Embodied language comprehension: Encoding-based and goal-driven processes.

Interaction between Sensory- and Goal-related Neuronal Signals on Saccade Trajectories in the Monkey

Saccade trajectories are dynamic and may reflect the interaction between sensory- and goal-driven processes. In humans, saccades often deviate towards visually salient distractors, but saccades have also been shown to deviate away from spatially predictable distractors (Van der Stigchel & Theeuwes, 2006; Ludwig & Gilchrist, 2004). This has been attributed to spatially-local excitation versus inhibition at some neural site representing the distractor. We explored the relationship between saccade deviation and neuronal activity in the superior colliculus (SC), a crucial substrate for the integration of sensory- and goal-related signals for the production of saccades. Monkeys were trained to make a simple step-saccade to a peripheral target stimulus, and on a portion of the trials a salient distractor appeared at a nearby spatially predictable location (i.e., the same location on every trial). If the distractor appeared simultaneous with the target, correctly directed saccades (those whose end point was closest to the target) often deviated towards the distractor, but when the distractor appeared shortly before the target at various onset asynchronies (50–400 ms), saccades began to systematically deviate away from the distractor. We divided the trials based on the degree to which the trajectories deviated away from the distractor and found that greater deviation away was associated with reduced activity at the distractor-related site in the SC beginning approximately 30 ms prior to saccade onset. Conversely, we divided the trials based on the level of neuronal activity at the distractor-related site (from −30 ms to saccade onset) and found significantly greater deviation away when activity was lowest. This is consistent with the idea that spatially-local excitation versus inhibition at the distractor-related SC site causes saccades to deviate towards versus away from salient distractors. Results are discussed in terms of SC lateral interactions and inhibitory nigrotectal projections (Jiang et al., 2003).

Oculomotor Evidence for Top-Down Control following the Initial Saccade

The goal of the current study was to investigate how salience-driven and goal-driven processes unfold during visual search over multiple eye movements. Eye movements were recorded while observers searched for a target, which was located on (Experiment 1) or defined as (Experiment 2) a specific orientation singleton. This singleton could either be the most, medium, or least salient element in the display. Results were analyzed as a function of response time separately for initial and second eye movements. Irrespective of the search task, initial saccades elicited shortly after the onset of the search display were primarily salience-driven whereas initial saccades elicited after approximately 250 ms were completely unaffected by salience. Initial saccades were increasingly guided in line with task requirements with increasing response times. Second saccades were completely unaffected by salience and were consistently goal-driven, irrespective of response time. These results suggest that stimulus-salience affects the visual system only briefly after a visual image enters the brain and has no effect thereafter.

Competition for Visual Selection in the Oculomotor System

During behavior, the oculomotor system is tasked with selecting objects from an ever-changing visual field and guiding eye movements to these locations. The attentional priority given to visual targets during selection can be strongly influenced by external stimulus properties or internal goals based on previous experience. Although these exogenous and endogenous drivers of selection are known to operate across partially overlapping timescales, the form of their interaction over time remains poorly understood. Using a novel choice task that simultaneously manipulates stimulus- and goal-driven attention, we demonstrate that exogenous and endogenous attentional biases change linearly as a function of time after stimulus onset and have an additive influence on the visual selection process in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). We present a family of computational models that quantify this interaction over time and detail the history dependence of both processes. The computational models reveal the existence of a critical 140-180 ms attentional "switching" time, when stimulus- and goal-driven processes simultaneously favor competing visual targets. These results suggest that the brain uses a linear sum of attentional biases to guide visual selection.

A model of top-down attentional control during visual search in complex scenes

Recently, there has been great interest among vision researchers in developing computational models that predict the distribution of saccadic endpoints in naturalistic scenes. In many of these studies, subjects are instructed to view scenes without any particular task in mind so that stimulus-driven (bottom-up) processes guide visual attention. However, whenever there is a search task, goal-driven (top-down) processes tend to dominate guidance, as indicated by attention being systematically biased toward image features that resemble those of the search target. In the present study, we devise a top-down model of visual attention during search in complex scenes based on similarity between the target and regions of the search scene. Similarity is defined for several feature dimensions such as orientation or spatial frequency using a histogram-matching technique. The amount of attentional guidance across visual feature dimensions is predicted by a previously introduced informativeness measure. We use eye-movement data gathered from participants' search of a set of naturalistic scenes to evaluate the model. The model is found to predict the distribution of saccadic endpoints in search displays nearly as accurately as do other observers' eye-movement data in the same displays.

Time Course of Attention Reveals Different Mechanisms for Spatial and Feature-Based Attention in Area V4

Attention can facilitate visual processing, emphasizing specific locations and highlighting stimuli containing specific features. To dissociate the mechanisms of spatial and feature-based attention, we compared the time course of visually evoked responses under different attention conditions. We recorded from single neurons in area V4 during a delayed match-to-sample task that controlled both spatial and feature-based attention. Neuronal responses increased when spatial attention was directed toward the receptive field and were modulated by the identity of the target of feature-based attention. Modulation by spatial attention was weaker during the early portion of the visual response and stronger during the later portion of the response. In contrast, modulation by feature-based attention was relatively constant throughout the response. It appears that stimulus onset transients disrupt spatial attention, but not feature attention. We conclude that spatial attention reflects a combination of stimulus-driven and goal-driven processes, while feature-based attention is purely goal driven.