TY - JOUR
T1 - Anticipatory distractor suppression elicited by statistical regularities in visual search
AU - Wang, Benchi
AU - van Driel, Joram
AU - Ort, Eduard
AU - Theeuwes, Jan
PY - 2019/10
Y1 - 2019/10
N2 - Salient yet irrelevant objects often capture our attention and interfere with our daily tasks. Distraction by salient objects can be reduced by suppressing the location where they are likely to appear. The question we addressed here was whether suppression of frequent distractor locations is already implemented beforehand, in anticipation of the stimulus. Using EEG, we recorded cortical activity of human participants searching for a target while ignoring a salient distractor. The distractor was presented more often at one location than at any other location. We found reduced capture for distractors at frequent locations, indicating that participants learned to avoid distraction. Critically, we found evidence for “proactive suppression” as already “prior to display onset,” there was enhanced power in parieto-occipital alpha oscillations contralateral to the frequent distractor location—a signal known to occur in anticipation of irrelevant information. Locked to display onset, ERP analysis showed a distractor suppression-related distractor positivity (PD) component for this location. Importantly, this PDwas found regardless of whether distracting information was presented at the frequent location. In addition, there was an early PD component representing an early attentional index of the frequent distractor location. Our results show anticipatory (proactive) suppression of frequent distractor locations in visual search already starting prior to display onset.
AB - Salient yet irrelevant objects often capture our attention and interfere with our daily tasks. Distraction by salient objects can be reduced by suppressing the location where they are likely to appear. The question we addressed here was whether suppression of frequent distractor locations is already implemented beforehand, in anticipation of the stimulus. Using EEG, we recorded cortical activity of human participants searching for a target while ignoring a salient distractor. The distractor was presented more often at one location than at any other location. We found reduced capture for distractors at frequent locations, indicating that participants learned to avoid distraction. Critically, we found evidence for “proactive suppression” as already “prior to display onset,” there was enhanced power in parieto-occipital alpha oscillations contralateral to the frequent distractor location—a signal known to occur in anticipation of irrelevant information. Locked to display onset, ERP analysis showed a distractor suppression-related distractor positivity (PD) component for this location. Importantly, this PDwas found regardless of whether distracting information was presented at the frequent location. In addition, there was an early PD component representing an early attentional index of the frequent distractor location. Our results show anticipatory (proactive) suppression of frequent distractor locations in visual search already starting prior to display onset.
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U2 - 10.1162/jocn_a_01433
DO - 10.1162/jocn_a_01433
M3 - Article
C2 - 31180265
AN - SCOPUS:85071681710
SN - 0898-929X
VL - 31
SP - 1535
EP - 1548
JO - Journal of cognitive neuroscience
JF - Journal of cognitive neuroscience
IS - 10
ER -