Andrew James

Retinotopic effects of visual attention revealed by dichoptic multifocal pupillography

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 14-02-2018

DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-21196-1

Abstract: Multifocal pupillographic objective perimetry (mfPOP) has recently been shown to be able to measure cortical function. Here we assessed 44 regions of the central 60 degrees of the visual fields of each eye concurrently in 7 minutes/test. We examined how foveally- and peripherally-directed attention changed response sensitivity and delay across the 44 visual field locations/eye. Four experiments were completed comparing white, yellow and blue stimulus arrays. Experiments 1 to 4 tested 16, 23, 9 and 6 subjects, 49/54 being unique. Experiment 1, Experiments 2 and 3, and Experiment 4 used three variants of the mfPOP method that provided increasingly improved signal quality. Experiments 1 to 3 examined centrally directed attention, and Experiment 4 compared effects of attention directed to different peripheral targets. Attention reduced the sensitivity of the peripheral locations in Experiment 1, but only for the white stimuli not yellow . Experiment 2 confirmed that result. Experiment 3 showed that blue stimuli behaved like white. Peripheral attention showed increased sensitivity around the attentional targets. The results are discussed in terms of the cortical inputs to the pupillary system. The results agree with those from multifocal and other fMRI and VEP studies. mfPOP may be a useful adjunct to those methods.

Australian National University

Location: Australia

View Organisation

University Of Adelaide

Location: Australia

View Organisation

Australian National University

Location: No location found

View Organisation

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP140100763

Start Date: 12-2014

End Date: 06-2018

Amount: $389,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

ARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE0561903

Start Date: 2006

End Date: 12-2013

Amount: $16,250,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council