Study of target and non-target interplay in spatial attention task

Abstract

Selective visual attention is the ability to selectively pay attention to the targets while inhibiting the distractors. This paper aims to study the targets and non-targets interplay in spatial attention task while subject attends to the target object present in one visual hemifield and ignores the distractor present in another visual hemifield. This paper performs the averaged evoked response potential (ERP) analysis and time-frequency analysis. ERP analysis agrees to the left hemisphere superiority over late potentials for the targets present in right visual hemifield. Time-frequency analysis performed suggests two parameters i.e. event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial coherence (ITC). These parameters show the same properties for the target present in either of the visual hemifields but show the difference while comparing the activity corresponding to the targets and non-targets. In this way, this study helps to visualise the difference between targets present in the left and right visual hemifields and, also the targets and non-targets present in the left and right visual hemifields. These results could be utilised to monitor subjects’ performance in brain–computer interface (BCI) and neurorehabilitation.

Keywords:

• Selective visual attention
• event-related potentials
• hemifield superiority
• neurorehabilitation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, for providing the facilities to carry out the research. We also thank Archive of Swartz Center, University of California in San Diego’s (UCSD) for sharing their data online.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Database

Online Archive of Swartz Center, University of California in San Diego’s (UCSD), Available from: http://headit-beta.ucsd.edu/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.