Visual evoked potential correlates of early neural filtering during selective attention

Bulletin of the Psychonomic SocietyPublished 1 October 1981Open access

Robert G. Eason

Citations205

TL;DR

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that selectively attending to a given spatial location involves a corticofugally controlled precortical neural filter that differentially screens information arriving from relevant and irrelevant locations, and the results supported the precorticals filtering hypothesis.

Abstract

Using controls and procedures responsive to criticisms of an earlier study by Eason, Harter, and White (1969), two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that selectively attending to a given spatial location involves a corticofugally controlled precortical neural filter that differentially screens information arriving from relevant and irrelevant locations. Twelve subjects participated in each experiment. The amplitude of an early evoked potential component believed to arise from striate cortex was greater to attended than to unattended stimuli presented in a given visual field. The amplitude also was greater during focused than during divided attention. In addition to corroborating the 1969 study, the results supported the precortical filtering hypothesis.

Keywords

Neuroscience

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