Proactive distractor suppression in early visual cortex

  1. David Richter  Is a corresponding author
  2. Dirk van Moorselaar
  3. Jan Theeuwes
  1. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
  2. Institute Brain and Behavior Amsterdam (iBBA), Netherlands
  3. Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Spain
  4. William James Center for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitario, Portugal
7 figures and 6 additional files

Figures

Paradigm.

(A) Example trial of the additional singleton visual search task. Trials started with a placeholder display (800 ms duration) signifying trial onset, followed by a fixed interstimulus interval (ISI) …

Behavioral facilitation by distractor suppression.

(A) Reaction times (RTs in ms; ordinate) were faster when distractor stimuli appeared at the high-probability distractor location (HPDL) compared to neutral location nearby the HPDL (NL-near) or …

Figure 2—source data 1

Behavioral facilitation by distractor suppression – reaction time (RT) data.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig2-data1-v1.csv
Figure 2—source data 2

Behavioral facilitation by distractor suppression – accuracy data.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig2-data2-v1.csv
Illustration of the analysis rationale and hypotheses.

(A) Region of interest (ROI) analysis procedure. During an independent location localizer task (left) checkerboard cross patterns (flickering black and white at 4 Hz) were presented at the locations …

Figure 4 with 4 supplements
Distractor suppression in early visual cortex.

(A) fMRI BOLD responses (ordinate) during search trials, split into stimulus types (abscissa). Color denotes locations based on distractor contingencies with red = high-probability distractor …

Figure 4—source data 1

Distractor suppression in early visual cortex – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-data1-v1.csv
Figure 4—source data 2

Distractor suppression in early visual cortex – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-data2-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 1
fMRI results generalize across region of interest (ROI) mask sizes.

To ensure that our results were not dependent on the exact number of voxels in the ROI masks, we repeated the main fMRI analysis with varying mask sizes. For simplicity, and because the primary ROI …

Figure 4—figure supplement 1—source data 1

fMRI results generalize across region of interest (ROI) mask sizes – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp1-data1-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 1—source data 2

fMRI results generalize across region of interest (ROI) mask sizes – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp1-data2-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 2
fMRI results did not depend on location-specific normalization of BOLD responses.

The high-probability distractor location (HPDL) differed between participants to avoid systematic effects of BOLD response differences driven by the physical location or hemodynamic differences for …

Figure 4—figure supplement 2—source data 1

fMRI results did not depend on location-specific normalization of BOLD responses – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp2-data1-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 2—source data 2

fMRI results did not depend on location-specific normalization of BOLD responses – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp2-data2-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 3
Priming does not explain distractor suppression.

To test for potential contributions of spatial priming due to the location of the distractor stimulus on the preceding trial, compared to statistical learning, we first computed a BOLD suppression …

Figure 4—figure supplement 3—source data 1

Priming does not explain distractor suppression.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp3-data1-v1.csv
Figure 4—figure supplement 4
Region of interest (ROI) location masks generalize across localizer runs.

Depicted are results from a cross-validation analysis, confirming the stimulus location selectivity of our early visual cortex (EVC) ROI masks. Number of voxels are shown on the x axis, while the y

Figure 4—figure supplement 4—source data 1

Region of interest (ROI) location masks generalize across localizer runs.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig4-figsupp4-data1-v1.csv
Figure 5 with 1 supplement
Ruling out explicit attentional strategies: distractor suppression in a subsample of participants with incorrect high-probability distractor location (HPDL) choices in the questionnaire.

Results for search (A) and omission (B) trials were highly similar to the main results using the full sample. Significant suppression of BOLD responses at both the HPDL and neutral location nearby …

Figure 5—source data 1

Distractor suppression in a subsample of participants with incorrect high-probability distractor location (HPDL) choices in the questionnaire – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig5-data1-v1.csv
Figure 5—source data 2

Distractor suppression in a subsample of participants with incorrect high-probability distractor location (HPDL) choices in the questionnaire – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig5-data2-v1.csv
Figure 5—figure supplement 1
No behavioral prioritization of targets at neutral location furthest away from the HPDL (NL-far).

Behavioral data in a target contingent analysis. To avoid confounds by distractor location, only distractor absent trials were included in the target contingent analysis. (A) Reaction times (RTs in …

Figure 5—figure supplement 1—source data 1

No behavioral prioritization of targets at neutral location furthest away from the HPDL (NL-far) – reaction time (RT) data.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig5-figsupp1-data1-v1.csv
Figure 5—figure supplement 1—source data 2

No behavioral prioritization of targets at neutral location furthest away from the HPDL (NL-far) – accuracy data.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-fig5-figsupp1-data2-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1
Distractor suppression in primary and secondary visual cortex.

(A) fMRI BOLD responses (ordinate) during search trials in V1 (left) and V2 (right), split into stimulus types (abscissa). Color denotes locations based on distractor contingencies with red = …

Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 1

Distractor suppression in primary visual cortex – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data1-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 2

Distractor suppression in secondary visual cortex – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data2-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 3

Distractor suppression in primary visual cortex – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data3-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 4

Distractor suppression in secondary visual cortex – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data4-v1.csv
Author response image 1
Analysis of BOLD suppression magnitudes in EVC across the MRI experiment phases.

BOLD suppression was comparable between early (Run 1+2) and late (Run 4+5) phases of the MRI experiment, suggesting consistent suppression in EVC following statistical learning. Error-bars denote …

Additional files

Supplementary file 1

Results of planned pairwise tests contrasting fMRI BOLD responses during search trials.

Contrasted are the three stimulus locations (high-probability distractor location [HPDL], neutral location nearby the HPDL [NL-near], neutral location furthest away from the HPDL [NL-far]) for each stimulus type (distractor, target, neutral stimulus) separately. Reported are paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests results as appropriate with associated effect sizes (Cohen’s d for t-tests and matched rank biserial correlation for Wilcoxon signed-rank tests). p-Values are uncorrected. Bayes factors denote the BF10 from Bayesian paired t-tests.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-supp1-v1.docx
MDAR checklist
https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-mdarchecklist1-v1.pdf
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 1

Distractor suppression in primary visual cortex – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data1-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 2

Distractor suppression in secondary visual cortex – search trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data2-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 3

Distractor suppression in primary visual cortex – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data3-v1.csv
Appendix 1—figure 1—source data 4

Distractor suppression in secondary visual cortex – omission trials.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/101733/elife-101733-app1-fig1-data4-v1.csv

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