Neural mechanisms underlying expectation-dependent inhibition of distracting information

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Abstract

Predictions based on learned statistical regularities in the visual worldhave been shown to facilitate attention and goal-directed behavior by sharpening the sensory representation of goal-relevant stimuli in advance. Yet, how the brain learns to ignore predictable goal-irrelevant or distracting information is unclear.Here, we used EEG anda visual search task in which the predictability of a distractor’s location and/or spatial frequency was manipulated to determine how spatial and feature distractor expectations are neurally implemented and reduce distractor interference. We find that expected distractor features could not only be decoded pre-stimulus, but their representation differed from the representation of that same feature when part of the target. Spatial distractor expectations did not induce changes in preparatory neural activity, but a strongly reduced Pd, an ERP index of inhibition. These results demonstrate that neural effects of statistical learning critically depend on the task relevance and dimension (spatial, feature) of predictions

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All data are publicly available on OSF . Analysis scripts can be downloaded via GitHub

Article and author information

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Dirk van Moorselaar

Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

For correspondence
dirkvanmoorselaar@gmail.com

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0491-1317
Eline Lampers

Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Elisa Cordesius

Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Heleen A Slagter

Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4180-1483

Funding

H2020 European Research Council (679399)

Heleen A Slagter

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: The ethical committee of the Department of Psychology of the University of Amsterdam approved the study (2018-BC-9051), which was conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.