Dynamics of temporal attention revealed by continuous tracking of visual cortical responses

Abstract

AbstractWe can often anticipate the precise moment when a stimulus will be relevant for our behavioral goals. Voluntary attention, the prioritization of sensory information at relevant time points, enhances visual perception, but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. To determine whether and how voluntary temporal attention dynamically modulates visual cortical activity, we continuously tracked visual cortical responses using a flickering noise stimulus and MEG recording while human observers performed a temporal attention task. We found two neural signatures of voluntary temporal attention: First, cortical response reliability gradually ramped up in anticipation of the predictable onset of visual targets, with the slope of the ramp modulated by temporal attention. Second, the impact of a target on the cortical response to the flicker was larger when that target was temporally attended. These data reveal how temporal attention dynamically modulates visual cortical responses to prioritize sensory information at precise moments.