When Tagging Frequency Matters to Attention: Effects on SSVEPs, ERPs, and Cognitive Processing

Abstract

Selective attention enables the prioritization of task-relevant information while managing distractors, and steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) are widely used to track this process by tagging different visual objects at distinct flicker frequencies. However, whether the choice of tagging frequency itself influences other neural and cognitive measures remains unclear. Here, 27 participants performed detection and 1-back working memory tasks while a central target and peripheral distractors flickered at either 8.6 Hz or 12 Hz. The working memory task produced slower responses, more errors, and greater perceived difficulty than detection. Tagging frequency strongly shaped neural responses, with 8.6 Hz eliciting higher SSVEP signal-to-noise ratios than 12 Hz regardless of stimulus location. Nevertheless, stronger SSVEP responses for centrally attended stimuli were associated with fewer working memory errors and larger early visual ERP responses, while SSVEPs for attended and distractor stimuli were negatively correlated. In addition, the working memory task produced a larger P1-N1 peak-to-peak difference, and tagging frequency altered the timing and amplitude of early ERP effects. Together, these findings show that tagging frequency is not a neutral methodological parameter, but one that shapes both neural indices of attention and their relationship to cognitive performance.