Proactive selective attention across competition contexts

Abstract

Selective attention is a cognitive function that helps filter out unwanted information. Theories such as the biased competition model (Desimone & Duncan, 1995) explain how attentional templates bias processing towards targets in contexts where multiple stimuli compete for resources. However, it is unclear how the anticipation of different levels of competition influences the nature of attentional templates, in a proactive fashion. In this study, we used EEG to investigate how the anticipated demands of attentional selection (either high or low stimuli competition contexts) modulate target-specific preparatory brain activity and its relationship with task performance. To do so, participants performed a sex judgement task in a cue-target paradigm where, depending on the block, target and distractor stimuli appeared simultaneously (high competition) or sequentially (low competition). Multivariate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) showed that, in both competition contexts, there was a preactivation of the target category to select with a ramping-up profile at the end of the preparatory interval. However, cross-classification showed no generalization across competition conditions, suggesting different preparatory formats. Notably, time-frequency analyses showed differences between anticipated competition demands, reflecting higher theta band power for high than low competition, which mediated the impact of subsequent stimuli competition on behavioral performance. Overall, our results show that, whereas preactivation of the internal templates associated with the category to select are engaged in advance in both competition contexts, their underlying neural patterns differ. In addition, these codes could not be associated with theta power, suggesting different preparatory processes. The implications of these findings are crucial to increase our understanding of the nature of top-down processes across different contexts.