Complex trade-offs in a dual-target visual search task are indexed by lateralised ERP components.

In everyday tasks, the choices we make incorporate complex trade-offs between conflicting factors that affect how we will achieve our goals. Previous experimental research has used dual-target visual search to determine how people flexibly adjust their behaviour and make choices that optimise their decisions. In this experiment, we leveraged a visual search task that incorporates complex trade-offs, and electroencephalography (EEG), to understand how neural mechanisms of selective attention contribute to choice behaviour in these tasks.

Humans trade off search costs and accuracy in a combined visual search and perceptual task.

To interact with one's environment, relevant objects have to be selected as targets for saccadic eye movements. Previous studies have demonstrated that factors such as visual saliency and reward influence saccade target selection, and that humans can dynamically trade off these factors to maximize expected value during visual search. However, expected value in everyday situations not only depends on saliency and reward, but also on the required time to find objects, and the likelihood of a successful object-interaction after search.

Differing Time Courses of Reward-Related Attentional Processing: An EEG Source-Space Analysis.

Since our environment typically contains more information than can be processed at any one time due to the limited capacity of our visual system, we are bound to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information. This process, termed attentional selection, is usually categorized into bottom-up and top-down processes. However, recent research suggests reward might also be an important factor in guiding attention.

Voluntary Control of Task Selection Does Not Eliminate the Impact of Selection History on Attention.

The human visual system can only process a fraction of the information present in a typical visual scene, and selection is historically framed as the outcome of bottom-up and top-down control processes. In this study, we evaluated how a third factor, an individual's selection history, interacts with top-down control mechanisms during visual search. Participants in our task were assigned to one of two groups in which they developed a history of either shape or color selection in one task, while searching for a shape singleton in a second task.

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met genotype does not influence the grey or white matter structures underlying recognition memory.

A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the gene coding for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has previously been associated with a reduction in recognition memory performance. While previous findings have highlighted that this SNP contributes to recognition memory, little is known about its influence on subprocesses of recognition, familiarity and recollection. Previous research has reported reduced hippocampal volume and decreased fractional anisotropy in carriers of the Met allele across a range of white matter tracts, including those networks that may support recognition memory.