TY - JOUR T1 - Global interactions between feature-based and spatial attention redistribute feature sensitivity across visual space JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/147223 SP - 147223 AU - D.M. van Es AU - J. Theeuwes AU - T. Knapen Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/07/147223.abstract N2 - Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing financial interests.Abbreviated title Feature-based & spatial attention in visual cortexAbstract Sensitivity for different visual features is not evenly distributed across visual space. However, the sampling of visual space is not fixed: attending a location in space is thought to increase spatial resolution by shifting receptive fields towards the attended location. Here, we investigated whether such changes in the sampling of visual space lead to a concurrent redistribution of feature sensitivities across the visual field and whether these changes depend on the attended feature.To this purpose, we estimated voxels’ spatial sampling in 5 human subjects under conditions of differential spatial and feature-based attention. Specifically, participants either performed a task at fixation, or on the color or temporal frequency content of a visual stimulus. We also recorded each voxel’s relative response modulation to changes in color and temporal frequency information.Directing spatial attention towards the mapping stimulus altered population receptive field (pRF) size and eccentricity in concert. This resampling of visual space was more pronounced when attending the stimulus’ color compared to temporal frequency content throughout the visual system. This effect was best modeled using an attention field model in which the attention field spread was similar across all visual field maps, and smaller when attending the stimulus’ color. In higher visual cortex these changes optimized feature sampling for task demands by alleviating a relatively low preference for color in the periphery.Together, these results show that spatial and feature-based attention interact in order to redistribute both spatial and featural processing resources across the visual field depending on task demands.Significance statement Sensitivity to visual features is not evenly distributed across visual space, as color compared to temporal frequency sensitivity is higher near the fovea. Spatial attention changes the sampling of visual space in order to better represent the attended location. We show that feature-based attention leverages this spatial resampling in order to redistribute feature processing resources across visual space. These results outline novel, intricate interactions between spatial and feature-based attentional modulations of visual representations. ER -