Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Grent-'t-Jong, T; Boehler, CN; Kenemans, JL; Woldorff, MG
Published in: Cereb Cortex
October 2011

Markers of preparatory visual-spatial attention in sensory cortex have been described both as lateralized, slow-wave event-related potential (ERP) components and as lateralized changes in oscillatory-electroencephalography alpha power, but the roles of these markers and their functional relationship are still unclear. Here, 3 versions of a visual-spatial cueing paradigm, differing in perceptual task difficulty and/or response instructions, were used to investigate the functional relationships between posterior oscillatory-alpha changes and our previously reported posterior, slow-wave biasing-related negativity (swBRN) ERP activity. The results indicate that the swBRN reflects spatially specific, pretarget preparatory activity sensitive to the expected perceptual difficulty of the target detection task, correlating in both location and strength with the early sensory-processing N1 ERP to the target, consistent with reflecting a preparatory baseline-shift mechanism. In contrast, contralateral event-related decreases in alpha-band power were relatively insensitive to perceptual difficulty and differed topographically from both the swBRN and target N1. Moreover, when response instructions emphasized making immediate responses to targets, compared with prescribing delayed responses, contralateral alpha-event-related desynchronization activity was particularly strong and correlated with the longer latency target-P3b activity. Thus, in contrast to the apparent perceptual-biasing role of swBRN activity, contralateral posterior alpha activity may represent an attentionally maintained task set linking stimulus-specific information and task-specific response requirements.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Cereb Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1460-2199

Publication Date

October 2011

Volume

21

Issue

10

Start / End Page

2204 / 2216

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Cortex
  • Space Perception
  • Somatosensory Cortex
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Grent-’t-Jong, T., Boehler, C. N., Kenemans, J. L., & Woldorff, M. G. (2011). Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention. Cereb Cortex, 21(10), 2204–2216. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhq279
Grent-’t-Jong, Tineke, C Nicolas Boehler, J Leon Kenemans, and Marty G. Woldorff. “Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention.Cereb Cortex 21, no. 10 (October 2011): 2204–16. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhq279.
Grent-’t-Jong T, Boehler CN, Kenemans JL, Woldorff MG. Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention. Cereb Cortex. 2011 Oct;21(10):2204–16.
Grent-’t-Jong, Tineke, et al. “Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention.Cereb Cortex, vol. 21, no. 10, Oct. 2011, pp. 2204–16. Pubmed, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhq279.
Grent-’t-Jong T, Boehler CN, Kenemans JL, Woldorff MG. Differential functional roles of slow-wave and oscillatory-α activity in visual sensory cortex during anticipatory visual-spatial attention. Cereb Cortex. 2011 Oct;21(10):2204–2216.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cereb Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1460-2199

Publication Date

October 2011

Volume

21

Issue

10

Start / End Page

2204 / 2216

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Cortex
  • Space Perception
  • Somatosensory Cortex
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology