Trained brains rapidly suppress visual distractions

Date:
February 23, 2023
Source:
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW
Summary:
Researchers show that while strong distractions may automatically
capture our attention, the trained brain can rapidly suppress such
distractions to help us efficiently reach our goals.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Have you ever found yourself searching for your keys or phone only to
end up getting distracted by a brightly colored object that grabs your attention? This type of attentional capture by objects that stand out from their surroundings is known as 'pop-out'. Pop-out is often functional,
for instance when we want people to pay attention to bright red road
signs. It can however also distract us from our goals, for instance
when a brightly colored binder prevents us from finding our keys on a
cluttered desk. Would it not be nice if pop-out for distracting items
could somehow be blocked or suppressed to avoid distractions and help
us find whatever we are looking for faster?

==========================================================================
New research from the Vision and Cognition group at the Netherlands
Institute for Neuroscience, published in PNAS, demonstrates that this
is indeed possible.

After training, the visual brain can suppress neuronal responses to
pop-out distractors that are usually enhanced compared to responses to
other, non- distracting, items. The researchers trained monkeys to play
a video game in which they searched for a unique shape among multiple
items, while a uniquely colored item tried to distract them. As soon as
the monkeys found the unique shape, they made an eye movement to it to
indicate their choice. After some training, monkeys became very good at
this game and almost never made eye movements to the distractor.

Neurons in area V4 of the visual cortex, a brain area that processes
visual information relatively early after is is captured by the
eyes, showed consistently enhanced responses to the shape target
stimuli. Responses to the distracting color stimuli on the other hand were
only very briefly enhanced but became rapidly suppressed. It appears that
the brain first briefly detects the presence of the distracting stimulus,
and then quickly suppresses it to avoid that it will interfere with the
search for the shape target. The color pop-out signal that might cause distraction is thus essentially inverted into a kind of negative pop-out,
or "pop-in," to avoids distraction.

Researcher Chris Klink: "Choosing what to attend to is very important
for visual perception, and behavior in general. Even though the brain
has impressive processing power, it simply cannot handle all available information at once. Attention needs to strike a balance between our
own internally generated goals and whatever appears to be important in
the environment.

Dealing with distraction in an efficient way is a crucial aspect of that process, that we now understand a little bit better."
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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Netherlands_Institute_for_Neuroscience_-_KNAW. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. P. Christiaan Klink, Rob R. M. Teeuwen, Jeannette A. M. Lorteije,
Pieter
R. Roelfsema. Inversion of pop-out for a distracting feature
dimension in monkey visual cortex. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 2023; 120 (9) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210839120 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230223132908.htm

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