Sudden changes in visual scenes often indicate important events for behavior. For their quick and reliable detection, the brain must be capable to process these changes as independently as possible from its current activation state. In motion-selective area MT, neurons respond to instantaneous speed changes with pronounced transients, often far exceeding the expected response as derived from their speed tuning profile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDirecting attention to a specific feature of an object has been linked to different forms of attentional modulation. Object-based attention theory founds on the finding that even task-irrelevant features at the selected object are subject to attentional modulation, while feature-based attention theory proposes a global processing benefit for the selected feature even at other objects. Most studies investigated either the one or the other form of attention, leaving open the possibility that both object- and feature-specific attentional effects do occur at the same time and may just represent two sides of a single attention system.
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