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Increasing the Spatial Extent of Attention Strengthens Surround Suppression

Merve Kiniklioglu, Huseyin Boyaci
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.26.470072
Merve Kiniklioglu
1Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey
2Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center & National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey
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  • For correspondence: m.kiniklioglu@bilkent.edu.tr hboyaci@bilkent.edu.tr
Huseyin Boyaci
1Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey
2Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center & National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey
3Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey
4Department of Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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  • For correspondence: m.kiniklioglu@bilkent.edu.tr hboyaci@bilkent.edu.tr
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Abstract

Here we investigate how the extent of spatial attention affects center-surround interaction in visual motion processing. To do so, we measured motion direction discrimination thresholds in humans using drifting gratings and two attention conditions. Under the narrow attention condition, attention was limited to the central part of the visual stimulus, whereas under the wide attention condition, it was directed to both the center and surround of the stimulus. We found stronger surround suppression under the wide attention condition. The magnitude of the attention effect increased with the size of the surround when the stimulus had low contrast, but did not change when it had high contrast. Results also showed that attention had a weaker effect when the center and surround gratings drifted in opposite directions. Next, to establish a link between the behavioral results and the neuronal response characteristics, we performed computer simulations using the divisive normalization model. Our simulations showed that the model can successfully predict the observed behavioral results using parameters derived from the medial temporal (MT) area of the cortex. These findings reveal the critical role of spatial attention on surround suppression and establish a link between neuronal activity and behavior. Further, these results also suggest that the reduced surround suppression found in certain clinical disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder) may be caused by abnormal attention mechanisms.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 27, 2021.
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Increasing the Spatial Extent of Attention Strengthens Surround Suppression
Merve Kiniklioglu, Huseyin Boyaci
bioRxiv 2021.11.26.470072; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.26.470072
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Increasing the Spatial Extent of Attention Strengthens Surround Suppression
Merve Kiniklioglu, Huseyin Boyaci
bioRxiv 2021.11.26.470072; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.26.470072

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