Task dependence of early attention modulation: the plot thickens

ABSTRACT

In Kelly, Gomez-Ramirez and Foxe (2008), we demonstrated strong spatial attentional modulation of initial afferent activity in human area V1 reflected in the C1 visual evoked potential (VEP) component. Using the same task and analysis strategy, Baumgartner and colleagues provide compelling evidence that there is no such modulation in their data. Here, we examine differences in task conditions between this new study and our original study, speculate on how they may account for the discrepant findings, and discuss the broader theoretical implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Attention
• primary visual cortex
• human VEP
• C1 component

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Irish Research Council [GOIPG/2016/123].