Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevant
- University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Abstract
Conflict detection in sensory input is central to adaptive human behavior. Perhaps unsurprisingly, past research has shown that conflict may even be detected in absence of conflict awareness, suggesting that conflict detection is an automatic process that does not require attention. To test the possibility of conflict processing in the absence of attention, we manipulated task relevance and response overlap of potentially conflicting stimulus features across six behavioral tasks. Multivariate analyses on human electroencephalographic data revealed neural signatures of conflict only when at least one feature of a conflicting stimulus was attended, regardless of whether that feature was part of the conflict, or overlaps with the response. In contrast, neural signatures of basic sensory processes were present even when a stimulus was completely unattended. These data reveal an attentional bottleneck at the level of objects, suggesting that object-based attention is a prerequisite for cognitive control operations involved in conflict detection.
Data availability
The data and analysis scripts used in this article is available on Figshare https://uvaauas.figshare.com/projects/Preserved_sensory_processing_but_hampered_conflict_detection_when_stimulus_input_is_task-irrelevant/115020
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Analyses scripts for manuscript: Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevantFigshare, https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.14730297.v1.
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Raw behavioral dataset for manuscript: Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevantFigshare, https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.14730396.v1.
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Decoded EEG (time-frequency) dataset for manuscript: Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevantFigshare, https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.14730402.v1.
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Decoded EEG (time-domain) dataset for manuscript: Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevantFigshare, https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.14754870.v1.
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Raw EEG dataset for manuscript: Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevantFigshare, https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.14709420.v1.
Article and author information
Author details
Stijn Adriaan Nuiten
Johannes Jacobus Fahrenfort
Funding
H2020 European Research Council (ERC-2016-STG_715605)
- Simon van Gaal
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants after explanation of the experimental protocol. This study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Amsterdam (projects: 2015-BC-4687, 2017-BC-8257, 2019-BC-10711).
Copyright
© 2021, Nuiten et al.
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.
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Preserved sensory processing but hampered conflict detection when stimulus input is task-irrelevant
eLife 10:e64431.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64431
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Movie-watching is a central aspect of our lives and an important paradigm for understanding the brain mechanisms behind cognition as it occurs in daily life. Contemporary views of ongoing thought argue that the ability to make sense of events in the ‘here and now’ depend on the neural processing of incoming sensory information by auditory and visual cortex, which are kept in check by systems in association cortex. However, we currently lack an understanding of how patterns of ongoing thoughts map onto the different brain systems when we watch a film, partly because methods of sampling experience disrupt the dynamics of brain activity and the experience of movie-watching. Our study established a novel method for mapping thought patterns onto the brain activity that occurs at different moments of a film, which does not disrupt the time course of brain activity or the movie-watching experience. We found moments when experience sampling highlighted engagement with multi-sensory features of the film or highlighted thoughts with episodic features, regions of sensory cortex were more active and subsequent memory for events in the movie was better—on the other hand, periods of intrusive distraction emerged when activity in regions of association cortex within the frontoparietal system was reduced. These results highlight the critical role sensory systems play in the multi-modal experience of movie-watching and provide evidence for the role of association cortex in reducing distraction when we watch films.
