Cortical evidence for negative search templates. Issue 1 (16th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reeder, Reshanne R.; Olivers, Christian N. L.; Pollmann, Stefan
• Is Part Of: Visual cognition. Volume 25:Issue 1/3(2017)
• Page Start: 278
• Page End: 290
• Publication Date: 2017-03-16
• Subjects: Negative cueing -- negative template -- distractor inhibition -- visual search -- fMRI; Visual perception -- Periodicals; Cognition -- Periodicals; Vision -- Periodicals; 152.14
• DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2017.1339755
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-6285

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A "target template", specifying target features, is thought to benefit visual search performance. Setting up a "negative template", specifying distractor features, should improve distractor inhibition and also benefit target detection. In the current fMRI study, subjects were required to search for a target among distractors enclosed in coloured circles. Before search, one of three colour cues appeared: a positive cue indicating the target will appear in the same colour, a negative cue indicating only distractors will appear in the same colour, or a neutral cue indicating that the same colour will not appear in the search display. fMRI results revealed down-regulation of neural processing in large parts of visual cortex following negative compared to positive cues. We further found a general attention inhibition mechanism in SPL/precuneus for neutral cues compared to positive and negative cues. These results suggest a cortical distinction between target templates, negative templates, and task-irrelevant distractor inhibition.