The attentional selection of spatial and non-spatial attributes in touch: ERP evidence for parallel and independent processes

Forster, B. and Eimer, Martin (2004) The attentional selection of spatial and non-spatial attributes in touch: ERP evidence for parallel and independent processes. Biological Psychology 66 (1), pp. 1-20. ISSN 0301-0511.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2003.08.001

Abstract

To investigate the functional relationship between spatial and non-spatial attentional selectivity in somatosensory processing, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to mechanical tactile stimuli, which were delivered to the right or left hand, and were low or high in frequency (Experiment 1), or soft or strong in intensity (Experiment 2). Participants’ task was to attend to a specific combination of one stimulus location and one non-spatial attribute. Spatial attention was reflected in enhanced N140 components followed by a sustained attentional negativity. ERP effects of non-spatial attention (enhanced negativities to the attended frequency or intensity) were observed in the same latency range, suggesting that the attentional selection of relevant spatial and non-spatial attributes occurs in parallel. Most importantly, ERP correlates of attention directed to stimulus frequency and intensity were unaffected by the current focus of spatial attention. In contrast to vision, where the selective processing of non-spatial attributes is hierarchically dependent on selection by location, but similar to auditory attention, spatial and non-spatial attentional selectivity appear to operate independently in touch.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
School:	Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
Depositing User:	Sarah Hall
Date Deposited:	26 Nov 2019 16:22
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 17:55
URI:	https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/30095

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